Offenbach: O Dieu, de quelle ivresse (from Les contes d'Hoffmann)

In October 1880, at the age of sixty-one, having poured out his high-spirited talent into over a hundred works for the stage, Offenbach lay exhausted on his deathbed. A strange figure wearing dark glasses and a floppy white cravat knocked at the door. It was Léonce, the comedian who had made such a big hit in Orphée aux enfers. The concierge told him: ‘Monsieur Offenbach is dead. He died very gently, without realising it’. ‘Well, well’, replied Léonce. ‘How annoyed he’ll be when he finds out.’

And that curious little anecdote, told by James Harding in his excellent liner notes, tells something of the wit and sparkling humour of these performances. Traversing a wide span of recordings – from Ernest Ansermet cheeky in the brilliantly-recorded overtures, to Sutherland and Crespin in voices thrilling and beguiling for the arias, this compendium offers not only the Offenbach ‘hits’ (including the Barcarolle from The Tales of Hoffman, both as an orchestral interlude as well as a duet), but several delightful rarities, performed by top-shelf Decca artists. Long out of print, the CD is now restored to circulation.

Piotr Beczala has established himself as one of the most outstanding young lyric tenors. Born in Southern Poland, he studied with Pavel Lisitsian and Sena Jurinac. After his first engagement at the Landestheater in Linz (Austria) he became a permanent member of the Zurich Opera and remains closely associated with this company.

He made his Covent Garden debut as the Italian tenor in Rosenkavalier and followed with an acclaimed Faust in 2004 and 2006. He returned as Lensky in Eugene Onegin this April with another Rosenkavalier at the Festival Hall, again with Zurich Opera.

He made a sensational role debut, in January of this year, as Riccardo in Verdi's Un ballo in maschera with the Berlin State Opera, where he was enthusiastically celebrated by both audience and press.The last two years

has seen a series of successful firsts including Alfredo, in La Traviata, with the Bavarian State Opera, Berlin's Deutsche Oper and also in Tokyo; the Duke in Rigoletto at La Scala and as his debut with the Metropolitan Opera; and Lensky in Eugene Onegin with the San Francisco Opera, where he returned as Tamino last year. In Frankfurt and in Munich he has been acclaimed for his portrayal of Werther, as was his Don Ottavio at Zurich Opera and the Salzburg Festival. In 2007 he added Edgardo in Donizetti's Lucia to his repertoire: singing this role he will return to the New York Met in autumn 2008.

His wide concert repertoire ranges from Mozart, Cherubini and Haydn's sacred music, via Rossini's Stabat Mater and Petite Messe Solennelle to Mahler's Das Lied. He has appeared on many recordings and DVDs but this is his first recital disc with excerpts from French and Italian operas, many of which he has already sung on stage.