Jacques OFFENBACH (1873-1925)
Boule de neige: La Valse du divorce – operetta overture (1871)
Six fables de La Fontaine - song cycle (1842)
Les bavards: C’est l’Espagne - operetta overture (1862)
Les deux aveugles - operetta overture (1855)
Madame Favart - operetta overture (1878)
Monsieur Choufleuri restera chez lui le… - operetta overture (1861)
Schüler Polka (1860)
Karine Deshayes (mezzo-soprano), Orchestre de L’Opéra de Rouen Normandie / Jean-Pierre Haeck
French text, English translation included.
rec. 2018, Studio Tutti, December 2018 Studio RIFFX, La Seine Musicale, Paris
ALPHA 553 [55:41]
I will begin my review of this welcome new recording by stating right off that it is a complete success and pure delight. The centerpiece of this recording of uncommon Offenbach compositions is a song cycle based on the much-loved fable poems of Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695). Offenbach wrote the six chansons for concert performance in 1842, when he was still at the beginning of his career. His first operetta, L’alcove, would not appear until 1847. It is an early composition but I find the music to be closer in feel to what Offenbach achieved in the compositional style for his grand opera Les contes d’Hoffmann. He is not bound by the rigid structure of the couplet song required in all of the operettas. These songs demonstrate a composer at the height of his powers; he expresses emotions and events naturally through the poetry of the songs. They also allow for more interpretive scope than does the usual Offenbach fare.
The cycle is performed by French star mezzo Karine Deshayes. Conductor Jean-Pierre Haeck has created some lovely new orchestration for the songs, which features in this world premiere recording. It all comes across with a great deal of charm. Ms. Deshayes catches the mood of each song setting perfectly. Her tone is gleaming and warm but it is her interpretation that shines out above all. She quite astounds me in her ability to actually make caressing phrases whilst singing a line such as “It won’t cost much bran to fatten up the pig” in the song La Laitière et la Pot au lait (track 6). There is just a hint of introspection in a couple of the songs, which she brings forward quite beautifully. It is at these moments that we are not far away from the world of Berlioz’s Les nuits d’éte. Every now and then a hint of the operetta style peeks out, as in Le Rat de ville et le Rat des champs. For Le Savetier et le Financier there is a move towards a more dramatic style, appropriate for the longest of all of the original poems.
The rest of the disc treats us to some of the less well-known operetta overtures and a couple of scenes for Ms. Deshayes. She finds the right note of insouciance combined with a mocking sort of teasing in the divorce song from Boule de neige. This was one of Offenbach’s later failures, coming just after the utter disaster of the siege and starvation of Paris and eventual defeat in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1871. In the gloomy aftermath, it seems the Parisian public found nothing much to laugh about, so the operettas mostly fell flat. Offenbach’s great operatic success would finally come, but only after his death. The final track on the disc is a little-known aspect of Offenbach’s compositions. This is the Schüler Polka (schoolboy polka) of 1860, one of the many dances he composed for public performance throughout his long career.
Jean-Pierre Haeck and his wonderful orchestra serve up a frothy second empire style to perfection. The orchestra gets to shine in a number of overtures, especially overture to Les bavards, with its hints of Spanish rhythms scattered through the piece. The recording team have judged the sound perpective extremely well. Once or twice a hint of too much echo on a high note of Ms. Deshayes intrudes but this is a very tiny quibble.
Mike Parr
