Opera Rara’s association with Offenbach’s music goes back to the company’s revival of his 1867 opéra-comique, Robinson Crusoe (ORC7), and the creation of a new piece, Christopher Columbus (ORC2), with a libretto by Don White, drawing on a host of the composer’s scores. In 2007, Opera Rara resumed its exploration of the huge output of the ‘Mozart of the Champs-Élysées’ with Entre Nous: Celebrating Offenbach (ORR243), a collection of excerpts from more than 20 of the composer’s lesser-known scores. Now Opera Rara presents a complete recording of the delectable comic opera in 3 acts, Vert-Vert, which was the follow-up to Robinson Crusoe at the Opéra Comique and one of five stage works Offenbach produced in 1869 alone. Toby Spence, who starred in ENO’s scintillating La Belle Hélène, takes the role of the charming young man nicknamed Vert-Vert after the deceased favourite parrot of the pupils at a girls’ boarding-school and Jennifer Larmore is cast as the exotic singer, La Corilla. With a libretto by Henri Meilhac and Charles Nuitter, this witty, sophisticated and subtle work is sure to enchant all Offenbach fans.

Artists

Thora Einarsdottir (Mimi)

Ann Taylor (Emma)

Lucy Crowe (Bathilde)

Toby Spence (Valentin), Mark Le Brocq (Binet), Mark Stone (Le Comte d’Arlange), Anne-Marie Owens (Mademoiselle Paturelle), Loïc Félix (Chevalier de Bergerac), Jennifer Larmore (La Corilla); Philharmonia Orchestra, Geoffrey Mitchell Choir, David Parry