The Carnival of the Animals # Orphée aux Enfers

Orpheus in the Underworld
Jacques Offenbach
Orphée aux enfers (Orpheus in the Underworld) is an opéra bouffon (a form of operetta), or opéra féerie in its revised version, 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 also marked 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 culminates in the risqué Galop infernal ("Infernal Galop") 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" (to the extent that the tune is widely, but erroneously, called "can-can") . Saint-Saëns borrowed the Galop, slowed it to a crawl, and arranged it for the strings to represent the tortoise in The Carnival of the Animals.
Playbill from an 1874 revival
The first performance of the two-act, opéra bouffe version took place at the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens in Paris on 21 October 1858 and ran for an initial 228 performances. It then returned to the stage a few weeks later, after the cast had had a rest. For the Vienna production of 1860, Carl Binder provided an overture that became famous, beginning with its bristling fanfare, followed by a tender love song, a dramatic passage, a complex waltz, and, finally, the renowned can-can music.
In America the work played in German at the Stadt Theatre, on Broadway, from March 1861.[4] It had its Czech premiere in 1864, under Adolf Čech.[5] It had a run of 76 performances at Her Majesty's Theatre, in London, beginning on 26 December 1865, in an adaptation by J. R. Planché.
A four-act version, designated as an opéra féerie, was first performed at the Théâtre de la Gaîté on 7 February 1874.[7] (This has proved less popular over time than the original two act version.)
Sadler's Wells opera presented an English version by Geoffrey Dunn beginning on 16 May 1960.[8] In the 1980s, English National Opera staged the opera freely translated into English by Snoo Wilson with David Pountney. The production was notable for its satirical portrayal of the then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher as the character Public Opinion. The first performance was at the Coliseum Theatre in London on 5 September 1985.The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company performed the work in the 1990s.
Critical appreciation

In the eyes of Clément and Larousse the piece is une parodie grotesque et grossière (a coarse and grotesque parody), full of vulgar and indecent scenes that give off une odeur malsaine (an unhealthy odor). In the opinion of Piat, however, Offenbach's Orphée is, like most of his major operettas, a bijou (jewel) that only snobs will fail to appreciate. The piece was not immediately a hit, but critics' condemnation of it, particularly that of Jules Janin, who called it a "profanation of holy and glorious antiquity," only provided vital publicity, serving to heighten the public's curiosity to see the piece.

Description de l’œuvre
Orphée aux enfers est un opéra bouffe, une féerie à grand spectacle, brillante et pétillante.
Parodiant les anciennes versions lyriques du mythe d'Orphée, Offenbach se moque de l’hypocrisie et de la recherche du plaisir à tout prix de son époque, avec une impertinence et une causticité, qui choquèrent profondément, en leurs temps, une partie du public, bourgeois et populaire.
Ce fut le premier grand succès de Jacques Offenbach, et l’on trouve déjà ce qui explosera dans La Belle Hélène, La Vie parisienne ou encore La Périchole, ce mariage parfait du théâtre et de la musique, du sérieux et de la trivialité. Tout brille dans cet opéra, où tout est prétexte à chanson, la verve satirique de son livret autant que la qualité de sa partition musicale proprement jubilatoire.

Résumé
C’est une folie que cette histoire de couples en crise, d’Olympe en révolte, d’Enfers orgiaques où chacun ne pense qu’à son propre plaisir et tout le monde ne rêve que de fête, de séduction, d’amour et s’en donne à cœur joie.

Acte 1
Comme on le dit familièrement, « Il y a de l’eau dans le gaz » dans le couple d’Orphée (ténor), le violoniste et d’Eurydice (soprano). Le premier charme les autres nymphes tandis que la seconde flirte avec le berger Aristée (ténor), qui n’est autre que Pluton, le dieu des Enfers. Fort heureusement pour Orphée, Eurydice meurt. Mais c’est sans compter avec l’opinion publique (mezzo-soprano) qui enjoint Orphée de partir la rechercher au séjour des morts.

Acte 2
Sur l’Olympe, Une rébellion de dieux remet en cause l’autorité de Jupiter (baryton). Junon (mezzo-soprano), son épouse, lui fait une scène de ménage quand arrive Pluton, à qui Jupiter reproche son inconduite. Orphée et l’Opinion Publique viennent réclamer Eurydice. C’est alors que Jupiter, accompagné des dieux, décide, par curiosité, de descendre aux Enfers.

Acte 3
Aux enfers Eurydice s’ennuie malgré les distractions du bouffon Styx (baryton). La vigilance de ce dernier est trompée par Jupiter, transformé en mouche, qui parvient à approcher Eurydice et à la séduire.

Acte 4
Pendant ce temps là, Pluton organise une bacchanale et empêche Jupiter d’emmener Eurydice. Quand à Orphée, guidée par l’Opinion publique, il doit ramener Eurydice sur terre, mais Jupiter, jaloux et trompeur, élimine les deux prétendants et abandonne la nymphe à Bacchus.

- See more at: www.opera-online.com/items/works/orphee-aux-enfers-halevy...

Taken in: France / Île-de-France / Paris / Quartier des Champs-Élysées (show map)

Taken on: July 13, 2023

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