The prolific operetta author Jacques Offenbach, of German origin, earned his livelihood in Paris as a virtuoso cellist before assuming in 1850, at the age of 31, the leadership of the orchestra of the Théatre Français. Sadly for him, he never succeeded in getting staged there some of his works. So, five years later he decided to run his own company, in a small theater which he named Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens.
Orpheus in the Underworld
In his new center of operations, Offenbach premiered very ingenious one-act operettas whose humorous texts and catchy melodies became the rage in the Paris of the time. Enthusiastic with the success and welcome given to his musical inventiveness —besides the lifting of the curious restrictions that his license contemplated: one act and maximum three artists—, in 1858 he premiered a major work, the mythological satire Orphée aux enfers (Orpheus in the Underworld), a delightful parody where he mocks the myth of Orfeo, poet and singer, and his wife Eurydice, gloating in passing with Gluck's Orpheus and Eurydice.
The work is, of course, also a social satire where the novel character Public Opinion has an outstanding participation. More than a century later, in an eighties version in London, it will outline a satirical portrait of the British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
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| Jacques Offenbach (1819 - 1880) |
But not only Orpheus is ridiculed but the entire stock of Greek gods. Full of delicious incongruities, the work shows Jupiter, Venus, Juno, Cupid, Mars, Pluto, Diana, Mercury, Minerva, Morpheus, and the infallible Bacchus, in nearly shocking irreverent situations.
The climax will come at the end of the second act when the gods should dance an irreverent can-can, a dance of recent invention and practiced with ardent enthusiasm in the dance halls of the Parisian popular classes in the mid-nineteenth century.
The critics
Nonetheless, the reception to the premiere of October 21, 1858, was rather mediocre but managed to impress some critics. Offenbach decided to revise it, giving it a new orchestration and extending the two original acts until completing four acts and twelve scenes. The scathing opinion of one critic of the time —which the composer responded by pointing out that the texts that one of the characters in the work sang were based on his opinions— reverted into a tremendous boost to the work. After the skirmish, it enjoyed 228 performances before being suspended for a short time, simply because of the well-deserved rest the artists were in need.
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| Carl Binder (1816 - 1860) |
The play returned to the stage a few weeks later. In 1860 it was performed in Vienna successfully but with a new overture. The Austrian operetta composer Carl Binder added a series of episodes to the quite brief original overture. The very famous Can-Can is the culmination of this series of new episodes.
The new overture begins with a stinging fanfare, followed by a clarinet solo that will introduce a tender love song by the oboe in 1:44. After a brief dramatic passage (3:26), the concertino announces the first bars of a quiet waltz (4:18) that will be followed by a certain drama. Finally, the widely spread can-can kicks off with all its wild joy at 6:59.
The rendition is by the Slovenian Youth Orchestra Gimnazija Kranj.
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