2/5 Great performances, but be prepared to rinse your eyes with bleach
  by LD400RN (Sebaastopol, CA, USA)
I bought this DVD because I like Natalie Dessay and I like the opera itself. First surprise: it was PAL format - fortunately my computer could play it. Let's get right down to it. The good: The performances are all well-acted and very well-sung. Miss Dessay has great comic timing and is a perfect Euredice. Evem the smaller parts, such a Cupid and Mercury are very well done. Mark Minkowski leads a tight-knit orchestra and keeps things moving right along. The sound quality and picture (editing and all) are very well done. The bad: The production itself. UG-LY!!!!!! Dessay's costumes make her look like a street-walker! The stage is bare mostly, except for Tableaux 2 and a chair here and there. It looks like the loser of France's "Great Design Challenge"-type show got the job! Tableaux 3 is very sexually suggestive. I know, she's infatuated by the fly (Jupiter in disguise) but do they really have to lie on top of each other? The costumes and sets get worse and worse as the opera moves forward. (Why is it that the French, Germans, Austrians, and sometimes, Italians take a perfectly charming opera [not just this one] and turn it into visual garbage?) To be honest, I never watched Tableaux 4 I was so repulsed by what I saw that I wished I had the bleach for my eyes but then realized the memories (shudder) would play on and on. Three stars for performances. Negative, unimaginable number for the looks of it. Do yourself a favor use your hard-earned money on the CD set (on the EMI label), thoroughly enjoy it, and imagine a nice production.

5/5 Don't miss Natalie Dessay in this fabulous farce
  by Operafilly (Fallbrook, Ca United States)
Natalie is the ultimate Euridice with marvelous acting and incredible singing. She generously sprinkles sparkling high G's throughout the show. If she couldn't sing she would have been a famous comedienne. The rest of the cast is delightful. Bethone's Cupid, Naouri's Jupiter, Beuron's Orphee, Olmeda'a Public Opinion, all singing the wonderful Offenbach music. The Fly Song, The Kissing Song...

I could do without the trasvestite dancers (maybe fast forward was invented for that)......but after all, its a French production.

I've converted Offenbach haters to Offenbach lovers with this video!!



5/5 Fine French Farce
  by James Brown (Chicago, USA)
I had the good fortune to pick up a copy of this production from the UK, and I certainly hope it becomes available in the US for the sake of fans of Jacques Offenbach and Natalie Dessay.

For those not familiar with the story, it's a burlesque of the Orpheus & Eurydice legend--he's a skirt chasing narcissist, she's a slut, and the gods are even worse. This is not Gounod or Massenet, but operetta at its best.

Even at this early point in her career, Natalie Dessay is the consummate singing actress, and she proves herself a deft comedienne, too. Not belle but tres joli, this diva in the making is the best of an excellent French ensemble, and it's easy to believe that all the men want a piece of her.

This is truly an ensemble piece, and it's hard to single anyone out (bravi!). The balance between singing and acting is nearly perfect, moving effortlessly from spoken dialogue to sparkling arias and some fine dance numbers; no single element overwhelms the others. By sticking to the story, farce though it is, the production is an immensely funny piece of theatre. The scathing social commentary (implied, not preached) is as current as it was 150 years ago. A few other standouts:

Yann Beuron's Orpheus is marvelous. Only in the first act is Orpheus a significant character and his duets with Eurydice and L'Opinion Publique are well choreographed and genuinely funny. He actually manages to make the vain, jealous musician sympathetic.

Laurent Naouri proves as deft a comic as his wife (Dessay), and with Jean-Paul Fouchecourt carries the action from the second scene onward. The fly duet especially combines some virtuoso singing with a bawdy, comic love scene.

Among the minor gods, Etienne Lescroart's Mercury singing his aria in a chorus line with the dancers is a highlight, and Cassandre Berthon's Cupid is so charming that you forget she's singing a male role.

Is there anything wanting? I didn't think so, but the performance was originally shot for television and seems a bit dark at times. Some will be put off by the modern albeit somewhat surreal sets and costumes or the fact that all the dancers (men and women) wear female costumes. That's their loss