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30/07/2010
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| COMPOSER |
| Jacques Offenbach |
Born in Cologne in 1819, Offenbach was the seventh of ten children. His family moved to Paris in 1833 where he studied cello at the Conservatoire. He joined the orchestra of the Opera-Comique in 1837, surviving as a virtuoso performer throughout the 1840s. During this time, however, he failed to realise his greater ambition as a composer and find a stage for his work. After five years as the conductor at the Théâtre Francais, Offenbach’s fortunes turned in 1855 when, during the World Exhibition in Paris, he hired the Théâtre Marigny in the Champs-Elysees, renamed it the Bouffes-Parisiens, and put on a successful season of operettas into which he inserted some of his own works, including Les deux aveugles and Le violoneux.
In 1858, he triumphed with his first full-length operetta, Orphee aux enfers, launching the cancan on an unsuspecting world, and making him famous in France. In 1861 he gave up directing the Bouffes-Parisiens and settled into a period that produced a string of successes: La vie parisienne (1866), La belle Helene (1864), Barbe-Bleue (1866), La Grande-Duchesse de Gerolstein (1867) and La Périchole (1868). It was during this time that he composed Robinson Crusoe (Opera Rara ORC7), an opera comique, with the role of Man Friday written for the young mezzo Celestine Galli-Marie , who later became Bizet’s first Carmen. |
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| | Related Titles |
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Vert-Vert
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Collections - The Opera Rara Collection - Volume 1
A feast and a temptation to the ears - DAVID JOHNSON, Fanfare
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IL SALOTTO: La Serenata (Volume 11)
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Entre Nous: Celebrating Offenabch
Reviews
Thank you to the members of The Jacques Offenbach Society for the following comments:
’I am absoutely delighted with the collection. The conducing and singing are first rate. The musical choices are varied and interesting. I think I found about a half dozen pieces that I had heard before. The rest are new to me, which is exactly what the collection promises to be.’ - Jeffrey Kurnit, White Plains, NY, USA.
’I consider this to be an extremely valuable addition to the Offenbach discography and admire Opera Rara for undertaking the task.’ - Sue Underwood
’I have listened several times to ’Celebrating Offenbach’ and I get more and more delighted about it. They have chosen a very good range of his forgotten music and is it marvellously performed. It has become one of my favourites.’ - Sixten Nyblom, Sweden
’This release will do much to ensure a wide distribution of the composer’s music. Those people unfamiliar with Offenbach who purchase this CD set will be thinking - if these are rarities, just how good is this composer?’- David Young, New Zealand.
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