Offenbach: La Périchole (complete operetta)
$70.00
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JACQUES OFFENBACH
Offenbach: La Périchole (complete operetta)
Aude Extrémo, Stanislas de Barbeyrac, Alexandre Duhamel, Eric Huchet / Les Musiciens du Louvre, Chœur de l'Opéra National de Bordeaux, Marc Minkowski
[ Bru Zane / 2 CD/Book ]
Release Date: Friday 28 June 2019
This item is currently out of stock. We expect to be able to supply it to you within 2 - 4 weeks from when you place your order.
Offenbach's La Périchole (1868) will never cease to delights music lovers of all persuasions. Marc Minkowski - long one of the composer's prophets - was keen to pay tribute to him with this world premiere recording on period instruments, in the company of the young school of French singers, including the bewitching Aude Extrémo, the dashing Stanislas de Barbeyrac and the hilarious Alexandre Duhamel. Combining fashionable rhythms with the most unexpected touches of folklore, the score is a veritable flood of hit numbers. How can one not be swept away by the insolence of the Seguidilla, the frenzy of the Bolero or the furious rhythm of the Prison Trio? Never before, perhaps, had Offenbach gone so far in caricaturing political leaders - nor used drunkenness to resolve the imbroglio of inextricable sentimental relationships. And indeed, the 'Tipsy Arietta' is one of the composer's best-known numbers. Cheers!
"In the pit are Les Musiciens du Louvre - part of a growing and welcome trend towards giving operetta the benefits of historically informed practice. You can hear the results from the very first bars: springy, lean, with the underlying dance rhythms (Minkowski favours brisk tempos) bouncing naturally up from the bass…the principals are very much inside their parts" Gramophone
"Les Musiciens du Louvre imbue Offenbach's scoring with a tangy leanness emphasizing the luminosity, tenderness and slight bitterness…The all-French cast is led by the highly talented Aude Extrémo, possessor of a beautifully full, steady mezzo. But she makes a rather one-dimensional leading lady" L'Opera
"I find this Minkowski recording of La Périchole tremendously entertaining from start to finish, and I wish I had been in the Bordeaux audience. A fitting tribute in Offenbach's 200th anniversary year." MusicWeb
"Although some of the dialogue may test non-Francophones, the performance is so idiomatic, and dashed off with such brio by his orchestra, the chorus and outstanding soloists - Aude Extrémo, in the title role, bears comparison with the great Régine Crespin's wit and sensuality - that one is quickly drawn in" Sunday Times
