Entre Nous -Celebrating Offenbach-

Jacques Offenbach: Le Financier et le Savetier	Voce D'Italia: Arias For Rubini The remarkable young Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Florez continues his triumphs over the difficulties of the bel canto repertory with this recital devoted to arias sung by Giovanni Battista Rubini (1794-1854). Rubini redefined the role of the tenor, singing heroically, with warmth, ...	Johann Strauss II: Jabuka (The Apple Festival)	Franz von Suppé: Fatinitza	Tchaikovsky - Eugene Onegin / Fleming, Vargas, Hvorostovsky, Gergiev, Carsen [Metropolitan Opera 2007] This set, filmed at the Metropolitan Opera's February 2007 performances of Tchaikovsky's most popular opera, has just about everything going for it: an all-star cast in peak form, a great orchestra led by today's leading Russian conductor, and a striking stage production whose mi...
Jules Massenet - Manon / Dessay, Villazon, Ramey, Lanza, Henry, Perez, McVicar (Gran Teatre del Liceu 2007) This imaginative Barcelona production of Massenet's tearjerker about a woman gone wrong in the dissolute world of 18th-century Paris features a brilliant performance of the title role by Natalie Dessay and an abundance of fine vocalism from most of her colleagues. Dessay's expres...	Donizetti - Imelda de' Lambertazzi	Diana Damrau - Arie di Bravura (Mozart, Salieri, Righini Opera Arias)	Romantic Arias Jonas Kaufmann is without question the most versatile tenor of his generation, and his current repertoire includes an astonishing range of opera roles from Mozart to Wagner. He is also a celebrated Lieder interpreter, equally at home on the concert platform. His Decca Debut album...	Gaetano Donizetti - La Fille du regiment / Dessay, Florez, Palmer, Corbelli, French, Campanella, Pelly (Royal Opera House 2007) This DVD version of Donizetti's comic opera zooms right to the top of any list of essential videos for opera fans. It may not be the composer's best work, but given a top-notch production with world class singing actors, it brings vocal thrills and an abundance of laughs, a combi...

Wonderful!
For anyone who already loves Offenbach, or for anyone interested in the development of modern, popular musical theatre, or for anyone who just loves good tunes that you can hum all day, this is essential listening. The music and the performances are absolutely glorious, and the accompanying documentation, as always with Opera Rara, is first class and a model of its kind. My only slight disappointment--and I emphasise "slight"--was that the selections seemed to favour the later Offenbach. There are only three pieces from the 1850s, when Offenbach exploded onto the French musical scene, and developed his inimitable style. But perhaps Opera Rara can be persuaded to put together another collection of "Early Offenbach"?

The best collection of forgotten Offenbach gems!
What a wonderful collection! When I first saw that this was going to be released I had to preorder it and get next day shipping and I have not been disapointed. There are other collections of the works of Offenbach out there but they mostly consist of highlights from the operas that we already own in complete form. They may come with a smattering of unheard pieces but generally you'll just get clips of La Vie..., Orphee...., La Belle...and such. This however is nothing but raraties. There are few pieces that come from operas you can get in complete form (after much searching) such as Genevieve de Brabant, Le Pont des soupirs, la Creole, L'Ile de Tulipatan, La Chateau a Toto, and possibly more (though I have yet to find them) but as I said all the complete recordings of these operas are hard to find and out of print. But even if you own all these there are so many other pieces you can find no where else. They are preformed brilliantly, recently, and with complete orchestrations. But what else could you expect from Opera-Rara? Another wonderful bit to this album is the included book. The libertti to each is included in french and english. And then the real treat. Each opera highlighted here has a brief history included. I own many books about Jaques Offenbach but the little histories about these forgotten treasures is in none of them. The thick booklet included makes this even more of a must have for any Offenbach fan.