Day 135
Offenbach: Monsieur Choufleuri
Soloists
Orchestra Philhamonic de Monte Carlo
Manuel Rosenthal
There is more to Offenbach that the Can Can! Many years of playing this as an encore piece at Christmas concerts might have put me off him for life but in fact I have a great admiration for Offenbach - as I get to know more of his operas the more I find to enjoy in his scores. There is a huge range of material in his music from extrovert energy though to touchingly romantic episodes and moments of real drama. Depending on how you count them they are more than 100 operettas to go at - I’ve not found one I didn’t enjoy.
This is a short one-act piece which is great fun. Right from the beginning the music leaps off the page. Subtle it isn’t - there is a lot of parody of Italian Opera and characteristic Offenbach use of nonsense syllables - but it makes a real impact and shows just what a master of the theatre he really was.
No comments:
Post a Comment