Offenbach: La Vie parisienne (Original Version)

“The rehearsals for La Vie parisienne are driving me almost mad,” wrote librettist Ludovic Halévy just a few days before the premiere. The performers of the Compagnie du Palais-Royal struggled with some of the musical numbers Offenbach had written for them. The composer and librettist were forced to simplify, cut, rewrite, and sometimes even abandon some of their most successful ideas. The international success of the final score quickly caused the hundreds of pages Offenbach had reluctantly cut to fall into oblivion. The research team at Palazzetto Bru Zane has now brought the entire musical material to light and made the world premiere recording possible. Listeners can now enjoy a charming diplomat’s trio, a quintet of seduction, a song of the street sweepers, a song for Urbain, the Baroness’s fabliau, and much more. The fourteen soloists, under the direction of Romain Dumas, are accompanied by the Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse, which had already recorded Offenbach’s “other” Vie parisienne... in 1976.