Search - Jacques Offenbach, Mark Elder, English National Opera Orchestra :: Offenbach: Orpheus in the Underworld / Burgess, Watson, etc (Highlights)

The weakest Orpheus around

Colin Glithero | Auburn,WA | 03/26/2009

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Sorry, but I find the enthusiastic reviews for this disc totally incomprehensible.This is poorly-selected, poorly-translated, and poorly-sung. There are two other versions in English, both of which are in a different class from this one. Lilian Watson is a fine Eurydice, but the rest of the cast are dull to mediocre (compare Richard Angus's muddy, unfocused delivery of Jupiter to Eric Shilling's clear,witty performance in the 1960 Sadler's Well's highlights recording,or to Richard Suart's in the 1994 complete set from the D'Oyly Carte company). Certainly Eurydice is the heart of the operetta, but a good Eurydice cannot make up for all the other weaknesses. Poorly selected? Several years after the first production, Offenbach expanded the work for production in a larger theater. He was working under the pressures of time and money, and the additions were, with one exception, well below his usual extremely high standard. Most modern productions omit these, except Mercury's song, which is vintage Offenbach. This disc includes them, omitting or shortening better numbers. If you love Offenbach, as I do, don't bother with this disc. There is a two-CD set of highlights from three operettas, Orpheus, La Belle Helene, and La Vie Parisienne, from the Sadler's Well's Opera. These are from the 60's, but the sound is still crystal-clear. This set is an incredible bargain, with excellent translations and superb singing from all three casts. Alternatively, there is a two-disc complete performance from 1994 by the D'Oyly Carte Opera, with first-class performances of both music and dialogue.(I think you can get this one from amazon.uk.)

So buy one of these or, better, splurge on both of them rather than spending money on ENO's inferior version.









c"