The brilliant Jacques (né Jakob) Offenbach, one of the Jewish German masters of French opera, was born in Cologne 200 years ago today. The Aristophanic, Bacchic Offenbach, best of all the Bachs. For wit, tunefulness, and music that makes you smile (or even laugh), his works are hard to beat.
Jupiter tries to seduce a mortal disguised as a fly, while Public Opinion pursues a merry widower. The soprano sings a delirious waltz while cannibals cook her alive. Impostors sing ensembles in Chinese or Italian gibberish, while the chorus get roaring drunk. And there’s pathos, too, in La belle Hélène or La Périchole.
Let’s celebrate with a party of some of the most delightful, toe-tapping music ever written for the stage.
Ah ! ah ! ah ! ça commence !
Tout tourne, tout danse,
Et voilà déjà,
Que ma tête s’en va !
Ba-ta-clan (1855)
- The Ba-ta-Clan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j46bpZsWc6Y
Orphée aux enfers (1858)
- Act I finale: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBKcN6TtUpM
- Rondeau des metamorphoses: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3AixX7T3Ik
- Duo de la mouche: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfEVeG8xFHY
- Galop infernal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4btfaT6kl4
M. Choufleuri restera chez lui le… (1861)
- Pedro possède une guitare: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5eeWryZM_4
Le trio italien:
La belle Hélène (1864)
- Au Mont Ida trois déesses: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYbdIXMr4AY
- Couplets des rois: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RC0uO88eAOM
- Act I finale (“l’homme à la pomme”): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWyhjuR6SjA
- Trio patriotique (with a parody of Guillaume Tell): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAnasPgducA
- Et tout d’abord, ô vile multitude: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBK7UNN-waU
La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein (1867):
- À cheval sur la discipline: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_7Y7fJ-czc
- Ah! que j’aime les militaires: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZ0g-2cAjIU
- Act I finale (Elle a ses nerfs!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bFtwaZEg6Q
- Trio bouffe:
Robinson Crusoé (1867)
- Waltz song (Joan Sutherland): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuM8nkzHPqM
La Périchole (1868)
- Couplets de l’incognito: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3C-U5S6BxA
- Le conquérant dit à la jeune indienne: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHcl7847a4c
- Letter song (Régine Crespin): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCqDqOTm0tI
- Act I finale: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRe3sGcKmYs
- Act II finale (Maris ré from 8’45”): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=md_-wuvFYUU
Les brigands (1869)
- Act I finale (des bottes): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BImfrw709yk
- Canon “Soyez pitoyables”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iB38Qc0pav0
- Trio des Marmitons:
- Y’a des gens qui se disn’t espagnols: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hVesTbLpiw
- Ô mes amours, ô mes maîtresses: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-omsYtJAhQ
La fille du tambour-major (1879)
- Ouverture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQNfRr0kDTQ
Les contes d’Hoffmann (1881)
And what better way to celebrate than by watching an Offenbach opera?
(particularly with a bottle of champagne)
Les Brigands: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuHqIjoLSEg&t=2s
Like an Astérix BD come to life!
La grande-duchesse de Gérolstein: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9xhwvQ5ux8
Delightful production, opening with a Gilliamesque cartoon
Offenbach’s Secret – this has two early Offenbach operas, Les deux aveugles and Croquefer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bejl0VJgCHE
Absolutely delirant. I hugged myself with mirth watching this. It is a Hungarian production, dubbed into English. Les deux aveugles is a two-man opera with very funny suicides and infanticides in the background. It has also a wonderfully atrocious pun, involving Descartes. Croquefer, set in the Middle Ages, is like opera crossed with the BBC children’s programme Horrible Histories. It’s brilliant, absolutely brilliant. There’s a wonderful duet that made me split my sides, with quotations from Meyerbeer, Halévy, Donizetti, even Adam. And a diarrhoea quintet. And at the end of the opera, the musicians, composer, and librettist are hauled off to the Charenton asylum. (I understand that mentality far more than the EMOTIONS! LOVE! FEELINGS! most operas inflict. I had an emotion once; it died from neglect.) What a wonderful way to celebrate Offenbach’s 200th birthday (particularly with two-thirds THE BETTER PART of a bottle of champagne).
The Opera Scribe 