Offenbach Romantique

Advantages: Gaily jolly, irreverent, humorous, bawdy, tuneful. A masterful reworking of the primary opus of the master of French comic opera. If you enjoy Gilbert and Sullivan track this one down – I can guarantee you a surprisingly wonderful musical experience.
Disadvantages: None

...) and Arthur Sullivan (Composer) together in 1875 in a collaboration to write a short piece in English as a curtain raiser from the Offenbach comic opera ‘La Perichole’. This became ‘Trial By Jury’ and their subsequent output together became a thing of history. Richard also set up the Opera Company which still bears his name and built the Savoy theatre and Hotel in the Strand in London. OFFENBACH Jacques Offenbach (a German jew) was born Jakob Wiener in Cologne in 1819. His family moved to France when he was a boy. He studied cello in Paris and initially earned his living playing in the orchestra of the Opera Comique. In 1850 he became conductor of the Theatre Francais and started to compose light and humorous operettas. He founded a theatrical company (the Bouffes-Parisiens) in 1855 which staged many of his operettas. He was granted French... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: easy to find the piece of music you want
Disadvantages: maybe too familiar for the expert listener

...tracks, and is arranged in a way that keeps the listener interested, without being too upbeat or sleep inducing! The second cd contains some just as brilliant but less well known operas, such as Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffman, and Bizet's The Pearl Fishers. I could say this disc actually gave me more enjoyment, as the songs were new to me, so I really listened instead of just trying to sing along! There are just over two hours of music on these cds, so you'll be engrossed for a while yet! There are so many operas written, and performed by different artists that it can be difficult to choose a single cd to listen to. This cd solves that problem by just giving you the best bits of a whole variety of operas. The booklet that comes inside the cd is fascinating and gives the listener a bit of background for each song, such as the opera it comes... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: Great gothic score that is romantically very alluring
Disadvantages: Annie Lennox song at the end is totally unnecessary

...... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful