Orphee aux enfers may be Offenbach’s best-known operetta, but it has had limited attention on disc. There appear to be only two previous complete recordings in French – one from 1952 under Rene Leibowitz (Nixa, 8/52 – nla), the other from 1978 under Michel Plasson. Whereas Leibowitz used the lightly scored original 1858 version in two acts and four scenes, Plasson opted for the spectacular 1874 version with lots of extra songs and ballet numbers. Since this latter demands huge forces, it is scarcely viable on stage today. The usual solution in the theatre is thus to add selected numbers from the 1874 version to the 1858 text, and this is what was done for the performances at Geneva, Lyons and Grenoble that formed the basis of this recording.
What makes artistic and economic sense for evenings in the theatre, of course, may be less appropriate for repeated home use. Home listeners may prefer to make their own selections of numbers, and musicologically questionable decisions such as the rescoring of 1874 pieces for 1858 orchestral resources become more exposed. What matters most, though, is the quality of performance, and the pleasures of this newcomer are formidable. Above all, Natalie Dessay’s bubbly Eurydice totally outstrips Mady Mesple’s in the 1978 recording. Her exchanges in the First Act with her despised violinist husband (the admirable Yann Beuron) are superbly done. So is her sighing over Jean-Paul Fouchecourt’s Aristeus, whose two big solos show equal elegance. Later come Laurent Naouri’s formidable Jupiter and cameos such as Etienne Lescroart’s agile performance of Mercury’s song and Patricia Petibon’s deliciously winning account of Cupid’s ‘Couplets des baisers’ (both interpolations from the 1874 version). Ensemble numbers are extremely well done, not least in the final party scene. Throughout, Marc Minkowski provides thoughtful and lively direction, altogether sprightlier than Plasson in 1978.
What causes doubt is the tendency towards overstatement, from the opening monologue of Eva Podles’s Public Opinion, where almost every word seems to be given exaggerated emphasis, through Aristeus’s crude falsetto in his opening solo, to a curiously mechanical version of John Styx’s ‘Quand j’etais roi de Beotie’ and some gratuitous vocal gymnastics in the ‘Hymne a Bacchus’. Nor are things helped by what sounds like a major editing blip 54 seconds into track 26 of the first disc.
Ultimately those doubts are banished by the positive virtues. Whereas those who want virtually every note Offenbach composed for Orphee aux enfers must stick with the 1978 EMI recording, this new version offers a more faithful impression of Offenbach’s original compact creation, with selected 1874 additions as a bonus. It is a consistently imaginative performance, altogether livelier than its predecessor, and at its best a superbly musical version of Offenbach’s sparkling creation.'