Composer: Jacques Offenbach
Performer: Anne-Catherine Gillet, Virginie Verrez, Antoinette Dennefeld, Josh Lovell
Orchestra: London Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor: Paul Daniel
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Opera Rara
Catalogue: 9293800632
Release: 2023
Size: 2.12 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: cover
La Princesse de Trébizonde
01. Ouverture
Act I
02. Introduction ‘Entrez, messieurs et dames’ (Chorus, le Directeur)
03. Introduction ‘Ce chateau mis en loterie’ (Chorus)
04. Introduction ‘Messieurs, pretez-moi vos oreilles’ (Tremolini, chorus)
05. Dialogue ‘Eh bien, Papa, il n’y a donc pas de seance’ (Regina, Cabriolo, Paola, Zanetta)
06. Couplets du nez casse ‘Ah quel malheur’ (Zanetta, Regina, Paola, Tremolini, Cabriolo)
07. Dialogue ‘la merveille de ma collection’ (Cabriolo, Regina, Tremolini, Paola)
08. Chanson ‘Quand je suis sur la corde raide’ (Regina)
09. Dialogue ‘C’est bon ! La representation va commencer’ (Cabriolo, Regina, Sparadrap, Raphael)
10. Romance des tourterelles ‘Une jeune fille passait’ (Raphael)
11. Dialogue ‘Mais comment? Vous n’avez pas d’argent!’ (Sparadrap, Raphael)
12. Finale ‘Ah Ce spectacle etait charmant’ (Chorus, Zanetta, Cabriolo, Tremolini, Regina, le Directeur)
13. Finale ‘Treize cent treize’ (Chorus, Cabriolo, Zanetta, Regina)
14. Finale ‘Adieu, patron, moi je vous quitte’ (Tremolini, Cabriolo, Regina, Paola)
15. Finale ‘Adieu, baraque hereditaire’ (Zanetta, Regina, Paola, Trémolini, Cabriolo, Chorus)
16. Entracte to Act II
Act II
17. Dialogue ‘Ah Dame On rit pas souvent ici’ (Regina, Paola, Cabriolo, Zanetta)
18. Quintette des assiettes ‘Oh ! Oui c’etait le bon temps’ (Cabriolo, Tremolini, Zanetta, Regina, Paola)
19. Dialogue ‘Oh J’avais besoin de ca’ (Cabriolo, Regina, Paola, Tremolini, Raphael, Zanetta, Sparadrap, Casimir)
20. Choeur de chasse ‘Voila un tas de chasseurs’ (Cabriolo, Chorus, Paola, Zanetta, Regina, Tremolini)
21. Dialogue ‘Ils s’eloignent’ (Raphael)
22. Duo ‘La voila’ (Raphael, Zanetta)
23. Dialogue ‘Oui, mon cher amour’ (Raphael, Zanetta, Casimir, Sparadrap)
24. Couplets de la canne ‘Me maquille-je comme on dit’ (Casimir)
25. Dialogue ‘Vous etes bien connu, Prince’ (Sparadrap, Casimir, Raphael)
26. Couplets ‘Elle est peinte admirablement’ (Raphael)
27. Dialogue ‘Quand tu auras ta princesse’ (Casimir, Raphael, Paola, Cabriolo)
28. Finale ‘Quoi, c’est le prince Casimir’ (Chorus, Casimir, Cabriolo, Regina, Zanetta, Tremolini, Sparadrap, Paola)
29. Finale ‘Femme du grand Rhotomago’ (Zanetta, Chorus)
30. Finale ‘Mon bonheur est complet’ (Chorus)
31. La Princesse de Trébizonde: Entracte to Act III
Act III
32. Choeur des pages ‘Ah quel ennui Quel sot metier’ (Les pages)
33. Couplets des pages ‘Cet enfant manquait d’audace’ (Les pages)
34. Dialogue ‘Mon papa part pour la chasse aux flambeaux’ (Raphael)
35. Romance ‘Fleur qui se fane avant d’eclore’ (Raphael)
36. Dialogue ‘Tada Nous voila en fete’ (Cabriolo, Zanetta, Regina, Paola, Tremolini, Sparadrap)
37. Choeur and couplets ‘Voila le prince Casimir’ (Cabriolo, Chorus, Casimir, Sparadrap, Raphael)
38. Dialogue ‘Vive le prince Casimir’ (Sparadrap, Casimir)
39. Ariette du mal de dents ‘D’où vient cette crise soudaine’ (Casimir, Raphael, Zanetta, Regina, Paola, Tremolini, Sparadrap, Chorus)
40. ‘Tu souffres donc beaucoup’ (Zanetta, Raphael, Casimir, Chorus)
41. ‘Ah C’est trop souffrir’ (Chorus)
42. Dialogue ‘Regina ! Ton pere’ (Tremolini, Regina)
43. Duo de l’enlevement ‘Moment fatal, helas’ (Tremolini, Regina)
44. Ronde des pages ‘Faisons notre ronde’ (Les pages)
45. Dialogue ‘Ah J’entends le craquement d’une chaussure’ (Paola, Regina, Zanetta, Sparadrap, Tremolini, Raphael)
46. Morceau d’ensemble ‘Nous voila Nous voila Nous voila’ (Les pages, Sparadrap, Raphael, Zanetta, Tremolini)
47. Morceau d’ensemble ‘O malvoisie’ (Raphael, Zanetta, Regina, Sparadrap, Tremolini, Chorus)
48. Morceau d’ensemble ‘La la la la’ (Chorus)
49. Dialogue ‘Ecoutez, on a frappe’ (Paola, Casimir, Sparadrap, Raphael, Regina, Cabriolo)
50. Finale ‘Allons Mariez-vous tous’ (Casimir, Zanetta, Chorus)
La Princesse de Trébizonde (Baden-Baden Version)
Act I:
51. Choeur et scene ‘Fetons l’anniversaire’ (Chorus, Cicognini, jeunes filles, Cabriolo, le Baron, Regina, Paola)
52. Couplets de Zanetta ‘Pardon papa’ (Zanetta)
53. Romance de Raphael ‘Elle agitait son eventail’ (Raphael)
54. Quatuor ‘Oh les belles femmes’ (Sparadrap, Casimir, Regina, Paola)
55. Entracte to Act II
Act II
56. Choeur et ensemble ‘Non ! Rien ne vaut ce musee’ (Chorus, Tremolini, Pietro, Carlo, Peppo, Horcio)
57. Duo avec choeur ‘Quand un papa part’ (Zanetta, Raphael, Chorus)
58. Trio du melon ‘Que c’est bon le melon’ (Regina, Tremolini, Zanetta, Raphael)
A travelling circus, an innocent prince in love with a waxwork and a lottery ticket to win a magnificent castle… What can possibly go wrong? The delightful opera La Princesse de Trébizonde is packed with earworm melodies and irresistible joie-de-vivre characteristic of Offenbach’s musical style.
Following the award-winning releases of Fantasio (2015) and Vert-Vert (2009), Opera Rara presents its 4th complete opera recording by Jacques Offenbach, a composer considered the father of the operetta and whose pioneering work influenced greatly many composers in the 20th century.
Conductor Paul Daniel leads an all-star cast including Virginie Verrez and Anne-Catherine Gillet in this premiere recording of Jean-Christophe Keck’s critical edition.
The Opera Rara label and company, true to their name, resurrect forgotten operas. There is an abundance of those in the output of Jacques Offenbach, who wrote some 100 operettas and opéras bouffes, few of which are remembered today. Opera Rara made a good pick with La Princesse de Trébizonde (1869), and this release made classical best-seller charts in the autumn of 2023. Offenbach is as full of good, Arthur Sullivan-like tunes as ever, and he even discarded a number of them from the operetta’s original production in Baden-Baden in the process of preparing a new version for Paris. Those discarded pieces are included here, and there could hardly be a better testimony to Offenbach’s melodic fecundity. Better still is the action, taking place in a carnival sideshow and suggesting all kinds of ideas for a production set in modern times. It is gloriously preposterous even by operetta standards. A girl, Zanetta, accidentally breaks the nose off a wax figure of the Princess of Trébizonde and agrees to stand in for the figure herself. A prince (a pants role) — who has dropped a lottery ticket into the till in lieu of paying admission — falls in love with the “Princess.” Meanwhile, the lottery ticket, with a castle as the prize, comes up a winner and overturns the relationships between rich and poor. The comic scenes thus spawned are handled with the needed high spirits by the cast and the several choruses (executed by Opera Rara’s remarkable house chorus), and conductor Paul Daniel is ideal in this genre, consistently pushing the tempo just slightly in order to bring the forward momentum. This recording is based on a 2022 London production but is a “cast recording,” not a live one, and it is quite clear sonically. La Princesse de Trébizonde has been recorded only twice before, once in Russian (!) and once for French radio in 1966; this sprightly performance is much needed.