Daughter of the Cabinet
Reviews of the 1998 Berkeley Opera production
and David Scott Marley's adaptation
"A spry, tuneful affair"
Marley spins out voluminous stretches of sharp, cleverly rhymed lyrics — from a wonderfully lewd song in the tradition of "Handy Man Blues" to a comic chorus of Secret Service agents — and he's funny on the intersection between sex and politics (even working a suave double entendre on the phrase "act of congress").
"Consistently clever"
Marley's resettings of the sung numbers are consistently clever, generously sprinkled with risqué double entendres. The raffish hearts of Lecocq and his musical progenitor Jacques Offenbach would have been gladdened.