Offenbach: The Brigands

Track Listings
1. The Brigands    

Editorial Reviews
Album Description
Here we present the first complete CD recording with William S. Gilbert’s English translation of Jacques Offenbach’s 1869 comic masterpiece. Les Brigands achieved resounding success just as the Second Empire came to an end. Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halevy supplied Offenbach with a cheerfully amoral libretto that presents theft as a basic principle of society, not an aberration. The forces of law and order are represented by the bumbling carabinieri, who always arrive too late to capture the thieves. The carabinieri’s exaggerated attire delighted the Parisian audience during the premiere at the Varietes on December 10, 1869. Only the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in the following months dampened the festivities. W.S. Gilbert’s 1871 English adaptation for Les Brigands premiered on the London stage in 1889, starring Lillian Russell in the role of Fiorella. In his typical curmudgeonly fashion, Gilbert disparaged his own work and attempted to prevent use in London of his English version – happily to no avail. His arch lyrics give the Offenbach work a uniquely hilarious quality, delightful to an operetta audience happy to accept a rough-and-tumble pirate band speaking impeccable, drawing room English while describing dastardly deeds to gavottes and musical romps in three-quarter time.

Offenbach: The Brigands, Music, Jacques Offenbach, J. Lynn Thompson, Ohio Light Opera 2003 Festival Orchestra, Aline Carnes, Alta Boover, Amy Pfrimmer, Anthony Maida, Arlene Simmonds, Ben Smith, Betha Curtis, Brian Woods, Candice Coffee, Danielle McCormick, David Wannen, Drake Dantzler, Grant Knox, Greg Brookes, James Stuart, Jami Rhodes, Jason Bridges, Jonathan Stinson, Julianna Byess, Justin Legris, Lauren Beatty, Lucy Campbell-Weber, Matthew Pellicia, Nathan Brian, Nicholas Wuehrmann, Oliver Henderson, Patrick Howle, Robin Bricker, Sahara Glasener, Sandra Ross, Sara Minckler, Spiro Matsos, Ted Christopher, Wade Woodward, Classical, French Operetta, Opera, Opera / Operetta / Oratorio, Opera/Operetta
Offenbach: The Brigands
Average customer rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • Where were the microphones?
  • I can't stop singing these tunes
  • Gilbert and Sullivan? No, Gilbert and Offenbach!
 Offenbach: The Brigands

Manufacturer: Albany Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B00022FWVS
Release Date: 2004-05-25

Tracks:

  1. The Brigands

Album Description

Here we present the first complete CD recording with William S. Gilbert's English translation of Jacques Offenbach's 1869 comic masterpiece. Les Brigands achieved resounding success just as the Second Empire came to an end. Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halevy supplied Offenbach with a cheerfully amoral libretto that presents theft as a basic principle of society, not an aberration. The forces of law and order are represented by the bumbling carabinieri, who always arrive too late to capture the thieves. The carabinieri's exaggerated attire delighted the Parisian audience during the premiere at the Varietes on December 10, 1869. Only the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in the following months dampened the festivities. W.S. Gilbert's 1871 English adaptation for Les Brigands premiered on the London stage in 1889, starring Lillian Russell in the role of Fiorella. In his typical curmudgeonly fashion, Gilbert disparaged his own work and attempted to prevent use in London of his English version - happily to no avail. His arch lyrics give the Offenbach work a uniquely hilarious quality, delightful to an operetta audience happy to accept a rough-and-tumble pirate band speaking impeccable, drawing room English while describing dastardly deeds to gavottes and musical romps in three-quarter time.

Customer Reviews:

3 out of 5 stars Where were the microphones?.......2005-04-20

Offenbach's music and Gilbert's libretto are both great fun, and the performances are too - especially allowing for the fact that this is really a "semi-professional" production. The acting is a little "comic opera-ish" and wooden, but this is if anything a plus. It is of couse "authentic" in that it is how Victorian and Edwardian comic opera used to be staged. I rather like it anyway.

And, as nearly always with the Ohio Light Opera, this release does not have a competitor - if you want to hear this operetta in English then this is all there is!

What lets this CD set down in my opinion - and this goes to a lesser or greater extent to all this company's recordings, at the least the three I have purchased so far, is the quality of the sound. It is recorded "live" (i.e. presumably at an actual performance - although there is little or no evidence of an audience) - I wish it had been done in a proper studio instead!

Sound levels are generally very low (although they fluctuate a fair bit) and I actually had to make a "boosted" copy onto MD when I wanted to play some tracks on our local community radio station - just to get enough volume so our equipment at the station would broadcast it at a listenable level. Clarity is poor (the fault of the sound engineers rather than the performers, in the main) and it is very fortunate indeed that the set includes a full libretto. Otherwise some of Gilbert's best lines would be lost.

Both the "lost stars" in my assessment are for sound quantity and quality, anyway.

5 out of 5 stars I can't stop singing these tunes.......2004-07-02

I bought this CD as a gift but have subsequently commandeered it for myself. I find myself singing the tunes at work, in the car, while running...halfway through a 5k race last Sunday I realized I was singing the Royal Carbineers song. I "tramp-tramp-tramped" to a 3rd-place finish. The orchestra is fantastic -- I feel like I'm there. The singing is superb. I just had to say how much I am enjoying this CD.

3 out of 5 stars Gilbert and Sullivan? No, Gilbert and Offenbach!.......2004-06-28

This is the only recording ever made, as far as I know, of William Schwenck Gilbert's English translation of Meilhac's and Halévy's libretto for Offenbach's 1869 operetta 'Les Brigands.' In the process the operetta effectively becomes another G&S operetta. Since Sullivan had borrowed many of Offenbach's tricks for his own music, this is not too surprising. There are, of course, identifiably Offenbachian tunes and harmonies here, but the oh-so-British lyrics tend to overcome any Gallic spirit the music might impart. Be that as it may, the piece is a hoot, with a not-quite-so-nice 'Pirates of Penzance' band of brigands whose stealing and intimidation of honest folks is presented as the norm, and honesty as some sort of aberration. The leader of the brigands, for instance, is scandalized that his daughter falls in love with 'an honest man' who then joins the brigands in order to win approval from her father and claim her hand.

This production, however, does not do justice to the piece. There is a lovely recording of the French-language original conducted by John Eliot Gardiner that puts this one in the shade musically. The only major plusses in this production are the excellent chorus, the alert conducting of J. Lynn Thompson and, of course, the Gilbert translation. Otherwise, it's a downright provincial effort with soloists that are not ready for prime time and an orchestra that sounds like a middling college group (and indeed they MAY be, since the Ohio Light Opera Company is resident at Wooster College in Ohio). The libretto is printed in full so one can read Gilbert's hilarious words, many of which are indistinct on the recording.

This recording apparently was made after the operetta was staged in Wooster, and I suspect it was much more effective in the theater, which lead to a suggestion: why doesn't OLO make DVDs of their productions?

Scott Morrison
Offenbach - Les Brigands / Raphanel · Alliot-Lugaz · Raffalli · Trempont · Le Roux · Dran · Viala · Pisani · Opéra de Lyon · Gardiner
Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
  • Smiling has new meaning
  • My Favoite Offenbach
 Offenbach - Les Brigands / Raphanel · Alliot-Lugaz · Raffalli · Trempont · Le Roux · Dran · Viala · Pisani · Opéra de Lyon · Gardiner
Jacques Offenbach , John Eliot Gardiner , Colette Alliot-Lugaz , François Le Roux , Choeurs et Orchestre de l'Opéra de Lyon , Tibère Raffalli , Michel Trempont , Jean-Luc Viala , and Thierry Dran Ghyslaine Raphanel
Manufacturer: EMI Int'l
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

All Works by OffenbachAll Works by Offenbach | Offenbach, Jacques | ( O ) | Featured Composers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music
GeneralGeneral | Classical | Styles | Music
GeneralGeneral | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
OperettasOperettas | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
ClassicalClassical | Imports | Stores | Music
Opera & VocalOpera & Vocal | Imports | Stores | Music
ASIN: B000006DDF
Release Date: 2001-11-13

Tracks:

  1. Overture
  2. No. 1 A - Choir Des Brigands: 'Le Cor Dans La Montagne'
  3. No.1 B - Couplets Des Jeunes Filles: 'Deja Depuis Une Grande Heure'
  4. No.1 C - Couplets De Falsacappa: 'Qui Est Celui Qui Par Les Plaines'
  5. No.1 D - Strette
  6. Dialogues: 'Voila Donc Ce Qu'il Faut...'
  7. No.1 Bis - Melodrame; No.2 - Couplets De Fiorella: 'Au Chapeau Je Porte Une Aigrette'
  8. Act I: Dialogues: Eh Bien, Qu'est-ce Que Vous Avez A Faire Ces Tetes
  9. No.3 - Morceau D'ensemble: 'Nous Avons Pris Ce Petit Homme'
  10. Dialogues: 'Est-ce Que L'on Va Devenir Plus Sage?...'
  11. No.4 - Couplets De Fragoletto: 'Quand Tu Me Fis L'Insigne Honneur...'
  12. Dialogues: 'Eh Voila Ce Qui Devait Arriver'
  13. No.4 Bis - Choir De Sortie: 'Nous Avons Pris Ce Petit Homme'
  14. Dialogues: 'Fiorella, Tu As Beacoup Change'
  15. No.5. Rondo: 'Apres Avoir Pris A Droite'
  16. Dialogues: 'Eh Bien, Ce Jeune Homme?'
  17. No.6 - Saltarelle: 'Ce Petit Est Un Vrai Luron'
  18. Dialogues: 'Il Faut Savoir Ce Qu'il Y A Dans Cette Valise'
  19. No.7 - Finale A - Choir De Reception: 'Pour Cette Ceremonie'/B - 'Jure D'avoir Du Courage... Vole...Vole'/C - Orgie: 'Flamme Claire'/D - Choir Des Carabiniers: 'Nous Sommes Les Carbiniers'/E - Strette: 'Flamme Claire'

Tracks:

  1. Entracte
  2. No.9 - Choir: 'Les Fourneaux Sont Allumes'
  3. Dialogues: 'Monsieur Pipo...'
  4. No.10 - Canon: 'Soyez Pitoyables'
  5. Dialogues: 'Lachez-Moi, Espece De Voyou!'
  6. No.11 - Duetto Du Notaire: 'He! La! He! La!'
  7. Dialogues: 'Bravo! C'est Tres Bien'
  8. No.12 - Trio Des Marmitons: 'Arrete-toi Donc, Je T'en Prie'
  9. No.13 - Choir Et Melodrame: 'A Nous, Hola!'
  10. No.14. Choir Et Couplets De L'ambassade: 'Dissimulons, Dissimulons... Nous Avons Ce Matin...'
  11. Dialogues: 'Alors, Nous Avons L'honneur'
  12. No.15 - Chor, Melodrame Et Scene, Couplets: 'Entrez-La!... Grenade, Infante Des Espagnes...Jadis Vous N'Aivez Qu'une Patrie'
  13. Dialogues: 'Enfin, Nous Sommes Arrives...'
  14. No.16 - Couplets De Fiorella: 'Vraiment Je N'en Sais Rien'
  15. Act II: Dialogues: Vos Appartements Sont Prepares
  16. No.17 - Finale: Choir, Ensemble, Scene: 'Entrez-la!... Tous Sans Trompette Ni Tambour... Quels Sont Ces Cris?...'
  17. No.18: Entracte
  18. No.19 - Chor De Fete Et Couplets Du Prince: 'L'aurore Parait... Jadis Regnait Un Prince'
  19. Dialogues: 'Bravo, Bravo!'
  20. No.20 - Couplets Du Caissier: 'O Mes Amours, O Mes Maitresses'
  21. Dialogues: 'Que Devenir!/No.21. Morceau D'ens: Voici Venir La Princesse'
  22. Dialogues: 'Ainsi, Princesse, Vous Etes De Grenade?'
  23. No.22 - Finale: 'Coquin, Brigande, Traitre...'

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Smiling has new meaning.......2006-04-28

It's impossible to hear this music without smiling inside and out. You don't have to understand French to find this comic opera a joy. This performance dazzles and flows with melodic brilliance. Pure song, pure happiness.
The enclosed libretto is in French, English and German if you are tempted to follow (and sing?) along.

5 out of 5 stars My Favoite Offenbach.......2005-02-17

I love the works of Offenbach quite a bit but this opperetta is by far my favorite Offenbach opera-bouffe. Everything about it is magnificent! The music is witty as well as grand. Some of the simplest of lyrics (though still fantastic in their simplicity) inspire offenbach to feats so great in music that some of the grand composer's that he means to mock he merely oversteps in his compisitions. He takes what ever they intended and instead of ridiculing with words he ridicules with his music by making them seem insignificant. How much more humiliating can it be for a composer when someone attempts to mock your music but instead writes music better than yours?
This is Offenbach at his comical musical and just plain pleasurable high point!

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