Celebrating Offenbach. Robinson Crusoe, Vert-Vert, Entre Nous

Robinson Crusoe Loosely adapted from the novel by Daniel Defoe Offenbach’s Robinson Crusoe (1867) was written during one of the composer’s most prolific period. In Don White’s witty translation, Robinson Crusoe is a hopeless romantic who runs away to sea only to be shipwrecked. His fiancée and her two servants set out to find him only to be shipwrecked themselves. With the help of Man Friday, the whole company is rescued from drunken pirates and waltzing cannibals before they return to live happily ever after in Bristol.

Vert-Vert (1869) was the follow-up to Robinson Crusoe at the Opéra-Comique and one of five stage works Offenbach produced in 1869 alone. With a libretto by Henri Meilhac and Charles Nuitter, who wrote many of Offenbach’s greatest successes, this delectable comic opera is sure to delight all Offenbach fans.

Entre Nous traces the extraordinary career of one of the great personalities of the 19th century, the composer, entrepreneur and satirist Jacques Offenbach through a carefully curated selection of rare arias, duets and ensembles taken from more than 20 operas composed between 1855 and 1880.

‘All but dedicated misanthropes will find this set entrancing. Highly recommended’ Gramophone

‘An absolute bliss’ Spectator