Offenbach: Ah! quel dîner je viens de faire (from La Perichole) (Tipsy waltz)

Another favourite of the Salzburg public was the mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade, who besides her Cherubino in Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro also enjoyed repeated successes in Salzburg with her song recitals. In 1986, accompanied by Martin Katz, she offered a programme that knew no boundaries – ranging from the florid poesy of settings by Fauré and Strauss to Mahler’s Songs of a Wayfarer, the moderate American Modernism of Charles Ives, Copland and Pasatieri, then to Canteloube’s French folk song adaptations. Schoenberg’s early cabaret songs served to round off the evening in ebullient fashion.

As the 19th century faded and the 20th century began, something special was in the air: the scent of decadence mingled with the thrill of the new.

Moving from Romanticism to Modernism, creative spirits welcomed diverse influences – some of them exotic – and introduced new textures and colours to their work. Whether first heard in Paris, Vienna or London, the music of the Belle Époque was typically sensuous, elegant and perfumed – and full of subtle delights.

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.