If you ever find it, and I guess it might have disappeared for some absurd reason, the most fun recording of Offenbach I know is the Regine Crespin version of the Grand Duchess of Gerolstein. I am looking for it but can’t find it…..it really made me laugh though, a real prima donna hooping it up with style and self-mockery.

The newish Belle Helene with Felicity Lott is fun too – and her Grand Duchess is a good second best to Crespin.

Crespin also did a lovely version of La Perichole…which is more touching than funny.

I like the ancient Plasson recording of Orpheus in the Underworld best too even if there are a few squeaky moments from Mady Mesple. It does sound like a real piece of French theatre.

Sorry about the absence of accents – I am not clever enough for this site!

It is interesting seeing that line from Gilbert through to Gershwin….I didn’t realize that he had penetrated Tin Pan Alley.

But after all this music talk, I am afraid I have still only got ears for Rodgers and Hart! I will move on eventually but I am just loving it now. Maybe I am Bewitched!

Yes, Gilbert helped pave the way for Hart, Ira Gershwin and others in making the words as important and memorable.

@ Wolfie – Offenbach does it for me too. “Tales of Hoffmann” is amazing – the seductive beauty of the Barcarole; the dizzy heights of Olympia’s song and the emotion of the Antonia section: all leading to a dispiriting ending. I have a “von Otter” sings Offenbach” CD but I do need to get more of his works. Thanks for reminding me.

Yes, I am free again thanks – trouble is I am now well and truly stuck with Lorenz Hart! Is it possible to listen to Bewitched only once and not to be forced to repeat it?

Interesting your comment about W.S. Gilbert – I wonder if Sondheim is a fan. I think we had a debate on here before about Gilbert – I used to sneer at G & S with the arrogance of adolescence but I have grown to appreciate him and the edge to his humour.

I am still though an Offenbach boy! When I first discovered these musical humourists, I think I went for Offenbach because his whole genre was so much more unlaced than G.& S. He is also, in my totally non-humble opinion, a much better composer than Sullivan.

As for Rodgers and Hart though….well, it is so full of hints and dares. It should be essential listening for anyone who wants to take a walk on the wild side.

Claudio, I don’t know that Sondheim song–what is it from? It’s like W.S. Gilbert after a couple gimlets!

I know her Porgy and Bess with Armstrong….fantastic. They were unbelievably well-suited to each other.

My life has been deprived no doubt but all good things comes to him who waits.

I wont be able to put this music down now….feel sorry for anyone who has to put up with my terrible sing-a-long with Ella moments.

Sometimes you just get stuck in one place, as if someone had locked you there, if you see what I mean.

I will go to the other Song Books now, I know, when I can move on…..Cole Porter is, with Lorenz Hart, my favourite and did the music too for God’s sake. Amazing men, both of them.

So, yes, I know I shall have to go buy the Porter Song Book next….well after I have listened through my cds of the original cast recordings of the Rodgers and Hart shows that is.

I know the musicals are a bit hit and miss but I love Pal Joey having seen a really inventive production of it at the Chichester Festival Theatre some years ago.

It is so rude, so direct and so human….and, of course, it has that greatest of great songs, Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered at its centre.

Now I shouldn’t have mentioned that…those lyrics just won’t leave you now. Sorry (not!)

How have you lived so long without these? You truly have had a deprived life.

Hart's lyrics are so wonderfully, easily witty:

"When love congeals/It soon reveals/The faint aroma of performing seals/ I wish I were in love again."

Having said that, I go delirious when I hear Sondheim's

"She was smart, tart, dry as a Martini/Ah, but underneath/She was all heart/ something by Puccini/
Ah, but underneath/In the depths of her interior/Were fears she was inferior/And something even eerier/But no one dared to query her superior exterior!"

That last line is incredible.

*starts singing 'Manhattan'*

Now I’ll have those incredible Hart lyrics in my head all day…