Offenbach: Un Mari à la porte
Gabrielle Philiponet (soprano), Anaïk Morel (mezzo-soprano), Stéphane Malbec-Garcia (tenor) & Marc Canturri (baritone)
The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
Liverpool Philharmonic 2012
Offenbach: Un Mari à la porte
A live recording from the 2008 Liverpool Philharmonic Hall performance of one of Offenbach’s dozens of early one-act entertainments written for the Bouffes-Parisien, in which young Florestan, chased by a bailiff, ends up trapped in the bedroom of just-married Suzanne along with her friend Rosita, while at the door knocks Suzanne’s husband – the very bailiff chasing Florestan.
Offenbach’s songs are less well known but he wrote up to a hundred, including the 1842 set Les fables de la Fontaine. Though not well received on first performance they display the wit and verve typical of the master of the operetta.
Tracklisting
Un Mari à la porte (A Husband at the Door)
Les fables de la Fontaine
Reviews
“The players are on technically good form, but I wish the conductor, Vasily Petrenko, had adopted a calmer style.” International Record Review, July/August 2012
“There’s top-drawer Offenbach here from the outset: the overture’s waltz, elegantly orchestrated for woodwinds and strings, has a stylish flick in its tail…Philiponet’s Rosita is a near-perfect flirtatious Offenbach soprano. And no wonder both women are so taken with Stephane Malbec-Garcia’s Florestan: he’s everything you hope for in a French tenor.” BBC Music Magazine, September 2012 ****
“I prefer all of the singers in the song-cycle to the operetta – it feels that they are not working so hard to play the piece. The scale of the songs suits their voices and their French-speaking origins ensure perfect enunciation of the text.” MusicWeb International, August 2012