Jacques Offenbach - Orphée aux Enfers overture

In 1858, Offenbach produced his first long operetta, Orphée aux Enfers ("Orphée into the Underworld"), which remains one of his most famous works. Orphée aux Enfers was Offenbach's first full-length opera.

For those who do not know about Offenbach's composition, when they first hear the name of the operetta, they may immediately think of the journey to pick up Erydice's wife from the underworld of Orphée, a classic ancient Greek tale, with a tragic ending because Orphée disobeyed the Pluto King and turned his head to look at his wife on the way back to earth. making her unable to revive. But in fact, Offenbach builds a scathing plot based on that legend: in his version of the operetta, Orphée is not the son of Apollo, but only a violin teacher who, when his wife is taken by Pluto, is happy to be free from a loveless marriage. But then, because of moral constraints, he had to set out to rescue her.

The opera is not only famous for its humorous, "contrarian" plot and evoking questions about the moral category, but also for the music of the overture. An overture version of the operetta that is popular today was arranged by an Austrian composer Carl Binder (1816–1860) with music from scenes of the operetta, extending the duration from Offenbach's original to only 104 bars to 393 bars. The music has become familiar to concerts, because the audience of classical music has always loved and listened to it.