Back in March 1980 I welcomed the original LP issue of this recording as ''a joyful achievement''. Since then it has gone on giving me joy, and I greatly welcome its reappearance on CD with the original three discs reduced to a very well-filled two.
The accompanying notes remain curiously reticent about the fact that what we have here is the revised 1874 version of the operetta, complete with various delightful interpolations that Offenbach wrote for a wide variety of characters in that large-scale production. Commendably these are given in full, with only Offenbach's 1874 Overture in abridged form (to hear this complete one must go to the recent Almeida collection—Philips 422 057-2PH, 10/88). Michel Senechal, Charles Burles, Jane Berbie and Michel Trempont take the vocal honours (Mady Mesple is a shade squeaky as Eurydice), with Michel Plasson managing the composer's gradations of tempo admirably. A sparkling recording, and a joyful achievement still.'