Orchestre National de France

The dazzling Patricia Petibon and her artistic partner Cyrille Dubois invite us on a voyage into the heart of the Second Empire, in this programme around the art of Offenbach. All we need do is allow ourselves to be transported by the prodigious imagination, elegant humour and dramatic instinct of one whom Wagner qualified, not without genuine respect, as the "Mozart of Les Champs-Elysees".

Master of Parisian buffa and comic opera, as well as a virtuoso cellist who was accompanied by Liszt on the piano, the indefatigable Offenbach applies his astonishing musical prodigality in the service of  "La Vie Parisienne" and its hedonism. The overture of Orphee aux Enfers, in the revision by Carl Binder, overflows with protruding interludes and ironic discoveries, including the famous "Cancan" and the irresistible crescendo towards its final gallop. Rarer still, but no less exhilarating, are the two late works, Madame Favart (1878) and La Fille du tambour-major (1879) that evoke, respectively, the romantic life of the actress Justine Favart and Bonaparte’s campaign in Italy, a few days before the battle of Marengo. But Offenbach’s art is also one of arias and duos, irresistible gems of dramatic purpose and effervescent parody: a splendid stage for theatrical vocality, in which emotion is never absent. Who has not succumbed to the enchantments of the famous "Barcarolle" from Tales of Hoffmann nor dreamed, "le temps d’une chanson", of Venetian nights of love?

In partnership with 

Orchestre National de France
Musical director Enrique Mazzola
Soprano Patricia Petibon
Tenor Cyrille Dubois

Jacques Offenbach

La Fille du Tambour-major
Ouverture

La Périchole
« Tu n’es pas beau... » (acte III)

Les Contes d’Hoffmann
Barcarolle « Belle nuit, Ô nuit d’amour » (acte III)

La Fille du Tambour-major
« Tout en tirant mon aiguille… Un tailleur amoureux » (acte I)

Barbe-Bleue
Ouverture

La Grande-duchesse de Gérolstein
« Ah ! que j’aime les militaires » (acte I)

Il Signor Fagotto
« Nous voilà seuls enfin »

Orphée aux enfers
Ouverture

La Périchole
« Ah ! quel dîner » (acte I)

Madame Favart
Ouverture

Orphée aux enfers
« Air de Pluton » (acte I)

Le Roi Carotte
Ouverture

La Périchole
« Le conquérant dit à la jeune Indienne » (acte I)