La Vie parisienne

Description

"The rehearsals of La Vie parisienne are driving me almost mad," notes the librettist Ludovic Halévy, just a few days before the premiere of the work. The artists of the Palais-Royal are struggling with some of the musical pieces that Offenbach has written for them. In a rush, they must simplify, cut, rewrite, and sometimes give up on some of the most successful numbers. The international success of the final score will soon make everyone forget the hundreds of pages reluctantly removed by Offenbach. Thanks to the research work of the Palazzetto Bru Zane, it has been possible to recover all this musical material and offer the first world recording of it. Thus, the listener is presented with a delightful diplomatic trio, a quintet of seduction, a song of the street sweeper, Urbain's aria, the Fabliau of the Baroness, and more. The team of 14 soloists gathered under the baton of Romain Dumas benefits from the full brilliance of the Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse, which had already recorded "the other" La Vie parisienne by Offenbach in... 1976.