Soprano Jodie Devos, who has signed with Alpha for several recordings, here pays homage to Offenbach, whose bicentenary of his birth is celebrated in 2019. This programme shows Offenbach’s fascination with the vocal fireworks of coloratura divas. This kind of lyric coloratura or soprano leggero voice runs like a thread through most of the composer’s oeuvre, from his first pieces for two or three soloists to those grand frescoes of his maturity, La Vie parisienne, Robinson Crusoé, and Orphée aux Enfers. The coloratura soprano also adorns Offenbach’s less frivolous operettas (such as Fantasio), as well as his only serious opera Les Contes d Hoffmann in which the role of the doll (with only one aria, but what an aria!) is among the most famous in the entire French repertoire. Concocted collaboratively with Alexandre Dratwicki and the Palazzetto Bru Zane, this recorded programme tailor-made for Jodie Devos presents innumerable rarities from Mesdames de la Halle, Boule-de-Neige,Un mari à la porte, Le Roi Carotte, Le Voyage dans la lune, and Vert-Vert. In the famous Barcarolle Belle nuit, Ô nuit d’amour, she is joined by up-and coming mezzo-soprano Adèle Charvet.
