August Recording of the Month: Fantasio

Our Recording of the Month is Offenbach’s Fantasio for which we won the 2015 Best Complete Opera Recording at the International Opera Awards.

Perhaps one of the least known of Offenbach’s lyric works, Fantasio only received a further 10 performances after its premiere in Paris in 1872. Featuring Brenda Rae, Victoria Simmonds, Aled Hall and Neil Davies, our revival recorded with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment uses the critical edition by Jean-Christophe Keck with whom we also collaborated with on La Princesse de Trébizonde most recently.

The title role is sung by Sarah Connolly described by Das Opernglas as ‘abundantly-timbred and effortless’.

Head over to our YouTube channel here to listen to the rousing ‘Vive le roi!’ as well as to discover more about this opera: