The prolific author of operettas Jacques Offenbach, of German origin, earned his living in Paris as a virtuoso cellist before taking over in 1850, at the age of 31, the direction of the Théatre Français' orchestra, where, much to his regret, he never managed to have any of his works staged on. Five years later, he decided to set up his own company, located in a small theater that he baptized with the name of Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens.
Orpheus in the Underworld
In his new headquarters, Offenbach would premiere very witty short musical stage plays whose humorous texts and catchy melodies were all the rage in Paris at the time. Enthused by the success and the welcome given to his musical inventiveness – in addition to the lifting of the curious restrictions stated for his license (one act and a maximum of three performers) –, in 1858 he premiered a major work. The mythological satire Orphée aux Enfers is a delightful parody where he mocks the myth of Orpheus, poet, and singer, and his wife Eurydice, gloating in passing with Gluck's Orpheus and Eurydice.
The play is, of course, also a social satire, in which the novel character Public Opinion plays an important role. More than a century later, in a 1980s version in London, the character will draw a satirical portrait of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
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| Jacques Offenbach (1819 - 1880) |
But it is not only Orpheus who is ridiculed but the entire pleiad of Greek gods. Full of delicious incongruities, the play presents Jupiter, Venus, Juno, Cupid, Mars, Pluto, Diana, Mercury, Minerva, Morpheus, and the inevitable Bacchus, in situations where no reverence is granted, whose climax will come at the end of Act II when the gods must dance an irreverent Can-Can, a dance of recent invention and practiced with ardent enthusiasm in the ballrooms of the Parisian popular classes in the mid-nineteenth century.
The critics
However, the reception to the premiere of October 21, 1858, was rather mediocre, although it did manage to impress some critics. Offenbach then decided to revise it, providing it with new orchestration and expanding the original two acts to complete four acts and twelve scenes. The scathing opinion of a critic of the time – to whom the composer responded by pointing out that the texts sung by one of the characters in the play were based on his opinions – turned out to be a tremendous endorsement of the work, which after the little skirmish enjoyed 228 performances before being paused for a short time, simply because the performers needed a well-deserved rest.
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| Carl Binder (1816 - 1860) |
The work returned to the stage a few weeks later, and in 1860 it was successfully performed in Vienna with a new overture. To the original, rather brief one, the Austrian operetta composer Carl Binder added a series of episodes culminating in the famous Can-Can.
The new overture opens with a poignant fanfare, followed by a clarinet solo introducing a tender love song by the oboe (1:44). After a brief dramatic passage (3:26), the concertino announces the first bars of a calm waltz (4:18) that later acquires a certain drama. Finally, the widely spread Can-Can kicks off with all its crazy glee at 6:59.
The new overture opens with a poignant fanfare, followed by a clarinet solo introducing a tender love song by the oboe (1:44). After a brief dramatic passage (3:26), the concertino announces the first bars of a calm waltz (4:18) that later acquires a certain drama. Finally, the widely spread Can-Can kicks off with all its crazy glee at 6:59.
The rendition is by the Slovenian Youth Orchestra Gimnazija Kranj.
