…although, admittedly, I might need to wait until Christmas 2014 for the recording to be released.

I am a huge fan of Opera Rara, the Indiana Joneses of the lost-opera-world.  They find obscure operas teetering on the verge of extinction, and pull them back from the brink. This time, they were rescuing Offenbach‘s much-maligned-and-overlooked Fantasio, which would have been lost to posterity altogether if the remarkable Jean-Christophe Keck had not made it his life’s work to restore the score. Sir Mark Elder and the Orchestra of the Age of the Enlightenment made the most of Offenbach’s ravishing writing.  It was a truly memorable, exquisite evening.

Click here to read my full review on Bachtrack

Sarah Connolly (Fantasio), Sir Mark Elder and Brenda Rae (Elsbeth)