Offenbach - Orphée aux Enfers / Dessay, Naouri, Fouchécourt, Beuron, Podles, Petibon, Smith, Gens, Cole, Minkowski

Jacques Offenbach (Artist), Marc Minkowski (Artist), Natalie Dessay (Artist), Jean-Paul Fouchécourt (Artist), Choeur et Orchestre de l'Opéra (Artist), Orchestre de Chambre de Grenoble (Artist), Laurent Naouri (Artist), Patricia Petibon (Artist), Yann Beuron (Artist), Lydie Pruvot (Artist), Ewa Podles (Artist), Etienne Lescroart (Artist), Jennifer Smith (Artist), Virginie Pochon (Artist), Véronique Gens (Artist), Steven Cole (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 11, 2002)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: EMI Classics
• ASIN: B00000I3U8
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #169,748 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #3 in Music > Classical > Opera & Vocal > Divas > Podles, Ewa

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Orphée aux enfers, operetta: Overture

2. Orphée aux enfers, operetta: Act 1, Tableau 1: 'Qui suis-je? Du théâre antique...'

3. Orphée aux enfers, operetta: Act 1, Tableau 1: 'La femme dont le coeur rêve'

4. Orphée aux enfers, operetta: Act 1, Tableau 1: 'Il est sorti!'

5. Orphée aux enfers, operetta: Act 1, Tableau 1: 'Ah! c'est ainsi!'

6. Orphée aux enfers, operetta: Act 1, Tableau 1: 'Oh Vénus, belle déesse'

7. Orphée aux enfers, operetta: Act 1, Tableau 1: 'J'ai peur...'

8. Orphée aux enfers, operetta: Act 1, Tableau 1: Ballet pastoral

9. Orphée aux enfers, operetta: Act 1, Tableau 1: 'Moi, je suis Aristée'

10. Orphée aux enfers, operetta: Act 1, Tableau 1: 'Voilà! Voilà ce que je dis...'

See all 32 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Orphée aux enfers, operetta: Act 2, Tableau 3: Entr'acte

2. Orphée aux enfers, operetta: Act 2, Tableau 3: 'Ah! quelle triste destinée'

3. Orphée aux enfers, operetta: Act 2, Tableau 3: 'Voilà deux jours que je suis seule'

4. Orphée aux enfers, operetta: Act 2, Tableau 3: 'Quand j'étais roi de Béotie'

5. Orphée aux enfers, operetta: Act 2, Tableau 3: 'Va-t'en, je te dis, tu sens le vin'

6. Orphée aux enfers, operetta: Act 2, Tableau 3: 'Pour attirer du fond de sa retraite'

7. Orphée aux enfers, operetta: Act 2, Tableau 3: 'A la une... à la deux... à la trois'

8. Orphée aux enfers, operetta: Act 2, Tableau 3: 'Il m'a semblé sur mon épaule'

9. Orphée aux enfers, operetta: Act 2, Tableau 3: 'Ah, je le savais bien'

10. Orphée aux enfers, operetta: Act 2, Tableau 3: 'Galop'

See all 20 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Should be illegal - way too much fun, January 20, 2004

By 

Lawrence Landis (Tulsa, OK USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Offenbach - Orphée aux Enfers / Dessay, Naouri, Fouchécourt, Beuron, Podles, Petibon, Smith, Gens, Cole, Minkowski (Audio CD)

This CD should be illegal - everyone from the singers to the musicians obviously had way too much fun - and so will you! Natalie Dessay shines as Eurydice and Laurent Naouri is a delightful (if rather roving) Jupiter, while Yann Beuron makes Orphee come alive. Ewa Podles gives Public Opinion exactly the right amount of santimonious self-rightousness.

A truly delightful recording - even if you aren't an opera lover, you owe it to yourself to listen to this wonderful romp to Mount Olympus and the Underworld...a case of Heaven in Hell!

Great performances all around, great sound...doesn't get any better (or more fun) than this.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars funny back then, funny today, July 17, 1999

By 

F. Behrens "Frank Behrens" (Keene, NH USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Offenbach - Orphée aux Enfers / Dessay, Naouri, Fouchécourt, Beuron, Podles, Petibon, Smith, Gens, Cole, Minkowski (Audio CD)

Some time ago, EMI issued a 3-CD set of the revised four act version of Offenbach's "Orphée aux Enfers" ("Orpheus in the Underworld") that is now available only in Europe or by special order. Dotted as it was with terrific tunes and very witty dialogue, the production as a whole dragged a bit, especially during the long ballet sequences. But now the same label has come out with a brand new recording (CDCB 56725 2) on two CDs of the original two act version with some additions from the longer one. And as Jackie Gleason used to say, it is a regular riot. With Natalie Dessay as a screaming Eurydice (the name means "wide justice" according to Robert Graves) who can make herself quite at home Down There and Yan Beuran as her cello-playing spouse who has to be forced by Public Opinion (Ewa Podles, in a bit of classy casting) to try to bring back his wife, this version simply hurtles headlong under the direction of Marc Minkowski from one great spoof of the venerable legend (the Olympians in revolt against too much ambrosia as the orchestra plays the Marseillaise) to another (some gods dancing a minuet while the rest indulge in a "galop infernal"-which the cuties at the Moulin Rouge took as their own and called it the Can-can!) So brush up on your French as you follow the text (and you should for this one, you know) and really have a good time on earth, on Olympus, and "aux enfers."

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A stunning accomplishment, January 17, 2001

By 

John Cragg (Delta(greater Vancouver), B.C Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Offenbach - Orphée aux Enfers / Dessay, Naouri, Fouchécourt, Beuron, Podles, Petibon, Smith, Gens, Cole, Minkowski (Audio CD)

Minkowski and his troupe of players provide an exciting and characterful rendition of Offenbach's send-up of classical opera themes-- oh that the great "reformer" Gluck had had anything like Offenbach's imagination and humour. The small, music-hall size orchestra and the lively, burlesque comedy carries the whole thing through without its dragging. There are innumerable memorable musical moments, so that repeated listening is rewarding, even though French spoken gags get a bit tedioius on too many repetitions. Natalie Dessay very much comes into her own -- a great singer who is also a great comedienne. But Ewa Podles' over-the-top performance, despite some vagaries in the French pronunciation, threatens to steal the show, much as Dessay threatens to steal the show from bigger-name sopranos in recordings of other operas. Oh that Minkowski had toured more widely with this production -- it must have been a marvelous evening of theatre as well as of music!