Some West Seattle families may know music director and teacher David Koch (pronounced “Coke”) through his decade-long staff position with Stage Struck children’s music camps. Or perhaps you attended one of his 65 musical productions of Seattle’s Cabaret Paris he created for over 12 years prior to that.

Koch, a youthful 54, was recently tapped to direct the French comedic operetta “La Perichole” written by composer Jacques Offenbach in 1868. It will be performed in English, and despite the translation, his pervasive punnery and wordplay promises to remain somewhat in tact.

“La Perichole” became very popular, due in part to Gilbert and Sullivan, or perhaps it is the other way around because the somewhat undiscovered musical duo were asked to write a farcical companion piece to Offenbach’s “La Perichole” and their first hit “Trial by Jury” immediately followed Offenbach’s operetta in London, 1875. That is when Gilbert and Sullivan were discovered. So thanks to Offenbach, and later to G&S, we have such patter songs as Groucho Marx’s “Lydia the Tatooed Lady,” Tom Lehrer’s “The Elements,” and even R.E.M.’s "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)."

“La Perchole” is produced by Jon Palmason, in charge of the Seattle Gilbert & Sullivan Society’s “Second Stage” shows. Seattle and Tacoma opera icon, the late Hans Wolf, set up a foundation so that lesser known works would be performed, including this one.

“Offenbach was the Stephen Sondheim of his day,” said Koch. “Everything he wrote was a hit. It’s set in exotic Peru and based on a real woman known as the “Perichole,” mistress of the Viceroy of Lima. She was considered a beauty and much beloved, and became the most famous singer in South America.

“It’s crazy, and my take is much wilder than more calm versions,” Koch promised. It’s about two street musicians, penniless, a couple that want to get married. She is whisked off to the Viceroy who wants her to be his mistress, but they had a weird law that she would need to have a husband first. So they find her one.”

Of course, the man she originally wanted to marry reenters the hijinks, and different jealousies develop.

“The songs are very upbeat and accessible to those new to opera,” Koch said. “I’m bringing our 6 year-old daughter, Quincy. She’s going to love it.” David recently sang at the Triple Door with his younger sister, Lisa Koch, also a West Seattle resident and professional musician. His wife, Siouxie Jeter-Koch, teaches at Cortiva Institute of Massage.

In the same vein as a comic operetta, David Koch shares his name, same spelling, and same middle initial, “H” with New York’s second richest resident, worth billions. There is even a “David H. Koch Theater” in the Lincoln Center.

Our David Koch is not sure if that is irony or coincidence, but, he said, “My father complains I am the other one and I have been holding out on him and now he expects better Christmas gifts.”

For tickets to “La Perichole” go to the Seattle Gilbert & Sullivan Society page at www.pattersong.org and find out about the next G&S performance too.

“La Perichole runs Feb. 19-21 at Town Hall in downtown Seattle.