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Offenbach - Les Divas d’Offenbach

The Europadisc Review

Offenbach - Les Divas d’Offenbach

Herve Niquet, Veronique Gens (soprano), Choeur et Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire

£11.95

Based in an historic Venetian palazzo, the Palazzeto Bru Zane – Centre de musique française is dedicated to the rediscovery and dissemination of French 19th-century music. They are particularly known for the sumptuous opera sets issued on their own label, which has just been named 2025 Label of the Year by Gramophone magazine. But they also contribute research to recordings on other imprints, and have forged a particularly fruitful partnership with Alpha Classics. The latest product of this collaboration is ‘Les Divas d’Offenbach’, a disc which... read more

Based in an historic Venetian palazzo, the Palazzeto Bru Zane – Centre de musique française is dedicated to the rediscovery and dissemination of French 19th-century music. They are particularly known ... read more

Offenbach - Les Divas d’Offenbach

Offenbach - Les Divas d’Offenbach

Herve Niquet, Veronique Gens (soprano), Choeur et Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire

Based in an historic Venetian palazzo, the Palazzeto Bru Zane – Centre de musique française is dedicated to the rediscovery and dissemination of French 19th-century music. They are particularly known for the sumptuous opera sets issued on their own label, which has just been named 2025 Label of the Year by Gramophone magazine. But they also contribute research to recordings on other imprints, and have forged a particularly fruitful partnership with Alpha Classics. The latest product of this collaboration is ‘Les Divas d’Offenbach’, a disc which celebrates the singers who were particularly associated with Offenbach’s stage works during his lifetime.
 
The sparkling arias for coloratura soprano, of which the so-called ‘Doll Aria’ from The Tales of Hoffmann is the most celebrated, may be first to spring to mind when Offenbach’s name is mentioned. Yet he particularly valued the more characterful qualities of the second soprano (or mezzo-soprano), with its more central range and ability to transition between the lyrical and the half-spoken or declamatory style. The voices of such renowned singer-actors as Hortense Schneider, Célestine Galli-Marié (the first Carmen), Anna Judic and Juliette Simon-Girard effortlessly embodied these qualities. Among today’s exponents, however, few are as much at home in Offenbach’s music as soprano Véronique Gens. She may be foremost a singer, yet her velvety voice has both the range and the capability of subtle nuance that Offenbach’s music and dramaturgy demand.
 
On this album, Véronique Gens is partnered by the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire under the wonderfully idiomatic direction of Hervé Niquet. Niquet is most associated with the French Baroque repertoire, but he brings a contained energy to the orchestral accompaniments that often feel like they might at any point break into the celebrated Can-can from Orpheus in the Underworld. He also knows exactly where greater sensitivity is called for, as in the delightful spinning song ‘Jeunesse aimable et charmante’ from the third version of the opéra bouffon, Geneviève de Brabant, where you can hear the soft timpani rolls through the whispering strings as Gens’ voice alternately soars and trills (‘Brrr… Brrr…’) above.
 
That is one of several rare treasures here, in a programme that ranges from the 1851 incidental music to Auguste Maquet and Jules Lacroix’s Valéria to the 1878 opéra comique, Madame Favart. The 1860s, when Offenbach’s popularity was at its peak, are of course well represented, but other items are real rarities, like Le Roman comique (1861) and La Boulangère a des écus (1875), while the ‘Rondo of the Old Lady’ from Madame Favart (1878) is heard in full for the first time, rather than the usual cut version.
 
The disc gets off to a cracking start with another surprise, a wonderfully engaging rondo that Anna Judic included in an 1876 revival of La Belle Hélène: Gens demonstrates exquisite poise combined with timbral warmth, which makes the final climax all the more thrilling. ‘Je crois bien et je le promets’ from La Diva (1869) brings the first of several interactions between Gens and the Chorus of the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire, and they are just as keen at word-pointing as Gens herself. The refrain ‘Faites-nous rire, quitte à tout dire’ is one of the catchiest on the disc, a real toe-tapper. It contrasts very nicely with the dreamily rapt ‘Declaration’ from La Grande-duchesse de Gérolstein (1867).
 
High spirits return for a pair of unpublished verses for the role of Madame de Quimper-Karadec in the third version (1875) of La Vie parisienne, as the character demands to be found ‘an apartment somewhere’, while fussing over her preference for black rather than green tea. With its delicate pizzicato accompaniment, the song ‘C’est pour aimer’ for the title character in Valéria is another delightful discovery, with Gens’ voice discreetly supported as she praises love while cannily dismissing religion, money and death. Another number with a fiery sparkle in its eye is Patchouline’s ‘Divorce Waltz’ from Boule-de-Neige (1871): here is a singer who knows very well how to convey knowing haughtiness and disdain.
 
Other highlights include the ‘Rondo of the Soldiers’ (‘Ah! How I love military men!’) from La Grande-duchesse de Gérolstein, with its snappy refrain, and the classically-hued Minuet and Rondo for the Old Lady in Madame Favart. The touching ‘Oui, j’ai menti, maid c’est pour lui’ for the title character in the 1857 opéra bouffe, Dragonette, brings another change of mood, and this seeps into the opening pages orchestral tone-picture that is the Entracte symphonique from Robinson Crusoé (1867). Gens’ voice is splendidly at home in the mezzo register of the desperate Letter Song from La Périchole (1868), but such fatalism is swept aside by the sheer brio and panache of Margot’s song from La Boulangère a des écus (‘The Baker has Money’), where she revels in her pecuniary success while the chorus looks admiringly on. In this spirited performance, full of joyous, you can hear why this now-neglected number was once popular with generations of opera-goers.
 
After further excerpts from La Périchole and Robinson Crusoé, the programme culminates in two zingers: a jaunty three-verse song, ‘De la blanche couronne’ from Le Roman comique, with its vibrant framing orchestral tuttis, which encapsulates the essence of Offenbach’s couplets, and Jeanne’s somewhat risqué ‘Hairdresser Song’ from La Diva. It’s a throw-away ending to close on an hour of hugely enjoyable and mainly unfamiliar jewels from Offenbach’s pen, and you’d be hard pressed to find another lyric soprano today with the vocal resources and verbal acuity to bring off such a varied programme with such aplomb. Ms Gens is supported every nimble step of the way by Niquet and his Loire forces. No lover of French 19th-century opera and operetta will want to be without it.

  • LSO Live
  • Ondine
  • Bru Zane
  • Alpha

The Spin Doctor Europadisc's Weekly Column

Tercentenary Focus: Alessandro Scarlatti

Tercentenary Focus: Alessandro Scarlatti  15th October 2025

15th October 2025

Although his music is these days far less well-known than that of his son, Domenico, Alessandro Scarlatti (1660–1725) is a figure of considerable importance in the development of Italian Baroque music. The tercentenary of his death – which falls on 22 October – affords the opportunity to explore his life and output in greater depth. Older reference books routinely credited him as ‘founder of the Neapolitan School’ of opera, but in recent decades that assessment has been challenged. Although he did indeed spend much of his career working in the Kingdom of Naples, he spent significant periods in Rome (where he began his musical life, and to which he subsequently returned) and Venice; and although he produced numerous operatic works in Naples, the extent to which they can be described as distinctively ‘Neapolitan’ is debatable.
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