La Vie Parisienne by Jacques Offenbach - Interview

'La Vie parisienne' by Jacques Offenbach
‘French opera’ series | volume 41 | 2024 | Bru Zane Label
Bilingual CD-book in French and English
2 CDs / book: 232 pages

👉 https://bit.ly/EN_LaVieParisienne

Opéra-bouffe in 5 acts by Jacques Offenbach.
Libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy.
First performed on 31 October 1866 at the théâtre du Palais-Royal (Paris).

Romain Dumas conductor
ORCHESTRE NATIONAL DU CAPITOLE DE TOULOUSE
CHOEUR DE L’OPÉRA NATIONAL DU CAPITOLE DE TOULOUSE

with Anne-Catherine Gillet, Véronique Gens, Sandrine Buendia, Elena Galitskaya, Louise Pingeot, Marie Kalinine, Marie Gautrot, Caroline Meng, Artavazd Sargsyan, Marc Mauillon, Jérôme Boutillier, Pierre Derhet, Philippe Estèphe, Carl Ghazarossian

‘The rehearsals for La Vie parisienne are almost driving me insane’, wrote librettist Ludovic Halévy a few days before the work’s first performance. The artists of the Palais-Royal company were struggling with some of the musical numbers Offenbach had written for them. Under pressure, composer and librettists had to simplify, cut, rewrite and sometimes even abandon some of their most successful inspirations. The international success of the final score soon ensured the hundreds of pages reluctantly deleted by Offenbach were well and truly forgotten.

Now the research of the Palazzetto Bru Zane team has uncovered all this musical material, making it possible to present the world premiere recording. Listeners can now enjoy a delightful Diplomatic Trio, a Seduction Quintet, a Roadsweeper’s Song, an air for Urbain, the Fabliau of the Baroness, and more. The team of fourteen soloists assembled under the baton of Romain Dumas benefits from the glittering sonorities of the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, which previously recorded Offenbach’s ‘other’ Vie parisienne back in... 1976.

Recorded from 10 to 13 January 2023 at the Halle aux Grains, Toulouse.
Score published by the Palazzetto Bru Zane.