This is the Bouffes-Parisiens we are invited

Marc Minkowski starts with this "Orpheus in the Underworld" his exploration of Offenbachian heritage. A particularly successful lead-in. It (re) gives a second life to this comic opera composed in 1858 and was the first public success of the composer.
1. It has a very good voice platform (Natalie Dessay in Eurydice, Laurent Naouri in Jupiter, John Paul Fauchécourt in Aristée or extraordinary Ewa Podles in the role of public opinion): the singer-actors, moving to mainly in the baroque universe, are also experienced in this style of music and show a remarkable diction and an accuracy of tone which makes us regret that Offenbach has not always been interpreted thus: that it is nice to take a French opera without using the ... booklet.
2. The musical accompaniment is made of lightness and poetry as foreseen in the autograph score, Marc Minkowski giving us to understand the original version of 1858 (plus some elements of that of 1874): it avoids the orchestrations out -Frame suffered by the music of Offenbach become for posterity sign of heaviness, bad taste and even vulgarity.
It is a theater piece that is given us to hear and not a magazine. We may regret some rewriting dialogues Mélinand Agathe but the overall follows a real pleasure.