Classical Music Composer Jacques Offenbach - Classical Music Orpheus in the Underworld

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Classical Music Composer: Jacques Offenbach
Orpheus in the Underworld
Orphée aux enfers (Orpheus in the Underworld), opéra bouffe (or opéra féerie in its revised version), is an operetta by Jacques Offenbach. The French text was written by Ludovic Halévy and later revised by Hector-Jonathan Crémieux.

The work, first performed in 1858, is said to be the first classical full-length operetta. Offenbach's earlier operettas were small-scale one-act works, since the law in France did not allow certain genres of full-length works. Orpheus was not only longer, but more musically adventurous than Offenbach's earlier pieces.

This marked also the first time that Offenbach used Greek mythology as a backdrop for one of his buffooneries. The operetta is an irreverent parody and scathing satire on Gluck and his Orfeo ed Euridice and culminated in the risqué galop infernal (often copied, widely used as the background music for the Can-can dance, and erroneously called "Can-can") that shocked some in the audience at the premiere. Other targets of satire, as would become typical in Offenbach's burlesques, are the stilted performances of classical drama at the Comédie Française and the scandals in society and politics of the Second French Empire.

The Infernal Galop from Act II, Scene 2 is famous outside classical circles as the music for the "Can-can". Saint-Saëns borrowed the Galop, slowed it to a crawl and assigned it to the strings to represent the tortoise in The Carnival of the Animals.

Role Voice type Premiere cast
(two act version), 21 October 1858
(Conductor: Jacques Offenbach ) Premiere cast
(four act version), 7 February 1874
(Conductor: Jacques Offenbach )
Cupidon (Cupid), god of love soprano Coralie Guffroy Matz-Ferrare
Diane (Diana), goddess of chastity soprano Chabert Berthe Perret
Eurydice, wife of Orphée soprano Lise Tautin Marie Cico
John Styx, servant of Pluton, formerly king of Boeotia baritone Debruille-Bache Alexandre
Junon (Juno), wife of Jupiter mezzo-soprano Marguerite Chabert Lyon
Jupiter, king of the gods baritone Aimable Courtecuisse Christian Perrin
Public Opinion mezzo-soprano Marguerite Macé-Montrouge Elvire Gilbert
Mars, god of war bass Floquet
Mercure (Mercury), messenger of the gods tenor Jean-François Philbert Pierre Grivot
Minerve (Minerva), goddess of wisdom soprano Marie Cico
Morphée (Morpheus), god of sleep tenor Marchand
Orphée (Orpheus), a musician tenor Tayau Meyronnet
Pluton (Pluto), god of the underworld, disguised as Aristée (Aristaeus), a farmer tenor Édouard Nicole Montaubry
Vénus (Venus), goddess of beauty contralto Marie Garnier Angèle
Amour mezzo-soprano Gervais/Enjalbert Matz-Ferrare
Bacchus, god of wine spoken Antognini
Cerbère (Cerberus), three-headed guardian of the underworld barked Tautin snr.
Minos baritone/tenor Georges Dejon-Marchand
Éaque (Aeacus) tenor --
Rhadamante (Rhadamanthus) bass --
Gods, goddesses, shepherds, shepherdesses, lictors and spirits in the underworld

http://listenclassicalmusic.blogspot.com/2010/03/classical-music-composer-jac...
http://listenclassicalmusic.blogspot.com

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• Orpheus
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[simonrock9]

the beginning was my fav.

[jflegionario]

love this version!

[MidmorningCat]

Beautiful C|