BaL 9.07.16 - Offenbach: Orpheus in the Underworld

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

0930
Building a Library: Sarah Lenton comes up with a personal recommendation for Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld from among available versions.

The starting point for Jacques Offenbach's 1858 opéra bouffe Orphée aux enfers is classical Greek myth. But tragedy it ain't. Here, instead, is a cheeky parody of Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice, the tragic pair a married couple grown sick of the sight of each other. So when Pluto lures Eurydice to his underworld both she and Orpheus are equally pleased. But, much to Orpheus' displeasure, Public Opinion demands Eurydice be rescued. And so she is, the opera ending with a bacchanal including a 'galop infernal' or Can-Can, one of the work's many earworm moments.

Available versions:

Renata George, Anneliese Rothenberger, Gisela Litz, Ferry Gruber, Karl Otto, Heinz Hoppe, Bruno Fritz, Else Muhl, Max Hansen, Erna Maria Duske, Ilse Hubener, Ursula Schirrmacher, Jurgen Forster, Rupert Glawitsch, North German Radio Chorus, North German Radio Symphony Orchestra, Paul Burkhard

Donald Grobe, Julia Migenes Johnson, Hans Beirer, Astrid Varnay, Helmuth Lohner, George Shirley, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Jesús López Cobos (DVD)

Alexandru Badea, Elizabeth Vidal, Dale Duesing, Reinaldo Macias, André Jung, Désirée Meiser, Jacqueline Van Quaille, Michele Patzakis, Maire-Noëlle De Callataÿ, Sonja Theodoridou, Laurence Misonne, Franck Cassard, Thomas Stache, Théâtre de la Monnaie Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, Patrick Davin (DVD)

William Workman, Elisabeth Steiner, Regina Marheineke, Toni Blankenheim, Lieselotte Pulver, Kurt Marschner, Theo Lingen, Urszula Koszut, Cvetka Ahlin, Franz Grundheber, Ballet and Chorus of the Hamburg State Opera and The Philharmonic State Orchestra Hamburg, Marek Janowski (DVD)

Jean Mollien, Claudine Collart, Andre Dran, Bernard Demigny, Violette Journeaux, Simone Pèbordes, Janine Lindenfelder, Ann-Marie Carpenter, Monique Chalot, Ann-Marie Carpenter, Amdré Jonqueres, Lucien Mans, Paris Philharmonic Orchestra & Chorus, René Leibowitz

Anneliese Rothenberger, Adolf Dallapozza, Gisela Litz, Ferry Gruber, Theo Lingen, Chor der Kölner Oper/Philharmonia Hungarica/Willy Mattes (download)

Yann Beuron, Natalie Dessay, Laurent Naouri, Jean-Paul Fouchecourt, Ewa Podles, Patricia Petibon, Jennifer Smith, Veronique Gens, Steven Cole, Virginie Pochon, Etienne Lescroart, Grenoble Chamber Orchestra & Lyon Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Marc Minkowski (CD & DVD versions)

Mady Mesplé , Michel Trempont, Charles Burles, Michel Sénéchal, Jane Rhodes, Jane Berbié, Michèle Pena, Michèle Command, Danièle Castaing, Bruce Brewer, André Mallabrera, Jean-Philippe Lafont, Chœur & Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse & Les Petits Chanteurs à la Croix Potencée, Michel Plasson

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Enjoy this one, 'cos it's the last BaL of the season.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

This is a BaL record for eliciting zero responses in the first 24 (almost) hours (apart from me talking to myself).

[BBMmk2]

Awe, poor EA! :) Well, I am not all that keen on Offenbach. It's not all that offen I listen to bach(!:))

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

This is a BaL record for eliciting zero responses in the first 24 (almost) hours (apart from me talking to myself).

It's not all that offen I listen to bach(!:))

Bet you wish you'd kept quiet now, Alpie?

Not a piece I particularly want to have a recording of at this stage in my life - I'll give this final BaL a miss.

[Nick Armstrong]

Awe, poor EA! :) Well, I am not all that keen on Offenbach. It's not all that offen I listen to bach(!:))

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I don't know the work, apart from the most famous bit. When conducting Lehar's Merry Widow, 25 years ago, I was asked by the producer to arrange Offenbach's Can-Can to follow Lehar's own. Subsequently, I used that arrangement countless times with school orchestras, amending it for concert bands and combined music service ensembles.

Then I discovered a wrong note that had been carried through every single version.

[LeMartinPecheur]

Well, I'm backing the Plasson!

Not because I actually know anything about it but because I have it sitting on my shelves as an unplayed s/h LP donation I like the work, been meaning to play it, but just don't get the time

Still, next Sat at least I'll know whether I should bin it and get a decent verson

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I don't know the work

I've played (& "sung") Jupiter in it. I say "it" - one of those AmDram arrangements of the piece that were popular (with AmDram groups) in the '60s and '70s. I was 18 at the time, and the papier maché fly specially constructed for the fly duet between Euridice and Jupiter got caught in my headdress on the first night and nearly tore my head off. Everybody in the production was most disappointed when it didn't happen in the subsequent nights. (Except Euridice, who couldn't stop laughing throughout the rest of the scene.)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I've played (& "sung") Jupiter in it. I say "it" - one of those AmDram arrangements of the piece that were popular (with AmDram groups) in the '60s and '70s. I was 18 at the time, and the papier maché fly specially constructed for the fly duet between Euridice and Jupiter got caught in my headdress on the first night and nearly tore my head off. Everybody in the production was most disappointed when it didn't happen in the subsequent nights. (Except Euridice, who couldn't stop laughing throughout the rest of the scene.)

Well it is supposed to be a comedy.

[verismissimo]

I know this work mostly through two abbreviated recordings - 1953 in Paris with Claudine Collart, Claude Devos, conducted by Jules Gressier; and Sadler's Wells in English from 1960 (with three Aussies, the delectable June Bronhill, Kevin Miller and Jon Weaving, conducted by Alexander Faris).

Now, for the first time I've dived into the whole thing with Mesple, Senechal, conducted by Plasson.

I so much prefer Offenbach to Sullivan!

[LHC]

The Minkowski version on DVD with Natalie Dessay is very good and great fun.

There was also a DVD version with Denis Quilley and Honor Blackman in English that was produced for the BBC. Production values were pretty ropey, and at times it appears to have been directed by Benny Hill, but it does feature the wonderful Lilian Watson as Euridice, and is worth seeing for her alone (although probably not at the prices now being asked - £154 on Amazon!)

[verismissimo]

While Kobbe ignored Orphee (and only briefly mentioned Offenbach), Lord Harewood in his revised edition endeavoured to make amends as follows:

It is a little hard to explain why in England Johann Strauss is so very much more popular than Offenbach... It is difficult to give a conclusive answer; Offenbach wrote startlingly good comic music, full of excellent tunes and humorous invention, and it seems likely to please almost anyone who is at all interested in the best sort of 'light' music (what else can one call it?). Orphee itself is a most accomplished and stylish bit of fooling, at its broadest in the spoofing of Gluck's 'J'ai perdu mon Eurydice', at its most hilarious and catching in the famous Can-Can.

I fear that both composer and work are still the victims of musical snobbery, not least, it seems, on these boards.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I fear that both composer and work are still the victims of musical snobbery, not least, it seems, on these boards.

Courage, mon brave! It is remarkable how, when a piece of "light" Music appears on the Forum and elicits little enthusiasm, the charge of "snobbery" regularly appears. Does it not occur those who are keen to make the accusation that perhaps others just may not like the genre very much?

[verismissimo]

Don't think you have to like the genre to enjoy this, ferney.