| Created By: |
uncle mikey Jun 26, 2010
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| Artist: |
Offenbach |
| Categories: |
Music |
| Description: |
Orphee aux enfers (Orpheus in the Underworld) is a satiric opera bouffe written by Jacques Offenbach in 1852. Act II, Scene 2 depicts a huge party the Greek gods are having in Hell, where ambrosia and nectar are everywhere, and propriety is nowhere to be seen. Eurydice sneaks in disguised as a bacchante, but Jupiter's plan to sneak her out is interrupted by calls for a dance. Unfortunately, Jupiter can only dance minuets which everyone else finds boring and awful. Things liven up, though, as the most famous number in the operetta, the risque Galop Infernal ("Fast Dance from Hell") starts, and all throw themselves into it with wild abandon. The piece is famous outside classical circles (and largely erroneously referred to) as the music for the "Can-can" (itself more correctly not hyphenated, as in: cancan, meaning "tittle-tattle" or "scandal"). |
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