A couple of years ago I took a look at the Bru-Zane reconstruction of the “original”; never performed, five act version of Offenbach’s La vie Parisienne.  That version was recorded live on stage in Paris; which was one stop on a multi-city tour.  Now it’s got the full Bru-Zane audio recording treatment complete with a 240 page book with much more information about what they did (and why) to create the performing edition used.  I won’t duplicate what I said in the review of the video but there are some things I noticed anew on the audio version.

There are cast changes compared to the video. Jodie Devos, alas, did not live to re-record her Gabrielle but they did bring in Véronique Gens in the small but important role of the grande horizontale Métalla.  It’s also a different orchestra and chorus.  This recording uses the forces of L’Opéra nationale du Capitole de Toulouse and was recorded in La Halle aux Grains in that city in January 2023.  It’s a huge cast so here it is for the record:

Without all the visual distraction it was possible to give more attention to what’s going on, over and above the general silliness.  One impression is that if certain scenes in Acts 4 and 5 hadn’t been cut they would surely have attracted the attention of the censor.  Pauline has one aria where she’s describing being driven in the park by a handsome coachman that has more double entendres than an episode of Benny Hill.  It’s much clearer too what part Métalla is playing in the drama.

Act 5 has its moments too.  There are actually two Don Giovanni parodies; one riffing off the masked ball scene and the other on the Commendatore coming to dinner.  There’s also something I completely missed in the video.  Early in Act 5 Alfred, maitre d’ at the restaurant where the final party will take place, is musing about entertaining Paris’ top courtesans who he describes as “la vielle garde qui rend toujours mais ne meurt pas” parodying what Cambronne, or maybe Michel, is said to have said at Waterloo.  How did I miss that?

This is probably the definitive performance of this rather trivial piece.  The performances are solid and idiomatic (i.e. very French) and the scholarship exemplary.  The recording is excellent.  It’s available as a physical 2CD/book package or digitally as MP3 and CD resolution and 96kHz/24 bit in the usual formats.  I listened to CD resolution WAV.  The full book is available digitally too.

Catalogue information: Bru-Zane BZ1057