Jacques Offenbach Un mari à la porte (A Husband at the Door) operetta to libretto by Alfred Delacour and Léon Morand. Directed 2019 by Luigi Di Gangi and Ugo Giacomazzi at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale in Florence. Stars Patrizio La Placa (Henri Martel), Marina Ogii (Suzanne), Matteo Mezzaro (Florestan Ducroquet), and Francesca Benitez (Rosita). Valerio Galli conducts the Orchestra of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. Set design by Federica Parolini; costume design by Agnese Rabatti; lighting design by Luigi Biondi. Directed for TV by Matteo Ricchetti; video editing by Adriano Figari; recording by Rino Trasi and Vera Zanotti; editing by Rino Trasi. Sung in French. Note this is a one-act farce that lasts only 47 minutes. Released 2019, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: NA
We usually exclude operettas for being insufferably silly. But we made an exception for this because it’s short and we wanted to compare it to the Offenbach opera Contes d’ HoSoffman. Well, this was reviewed by Richard Bratby in the March Gramophone at pages 90-91, who reports that it was directed as “a huge cartoon”, with “a lot of mugging and slapstick.” The trailer below confirms this. Bratby goes on to say that the video “effectively captures Offenbach’s comic energy. I laughed, and I’m still humming the tunes, and I don’t think Offernbach would have asked for more.” Patrick Dillon at pages 50-51 of the June 2020 Opera News gives this a Critic’s Choice award for the month since “it’s all in good fun” and the “performers all seem to be having a grand time.” If you are inspired to get this disc, be careful not to pay too much — it should not sell for a lot more than a CD.
Here’s a trailer from Dynamic:
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