Orphée aux enfers was Offenbach's first great success, and it already featured the perfect marriage of theater and music, of seriousness and triviality, that was to be found in La Belle Hélène, La Vie parisienne and La Périchole. Everything shines in this opéra bouffe, where everything is a pretext for song, as much for the quality of its jubilant musical score as for the satirical verve of its libretto.

Orpheus and Eurydice are a couple on the rocks. But Orpheus, too concerned with public opinion, refuses to consider divorce. And when, in a most truculent twist of fate, Orpheus finally regains his freedom from his wife, Public Opinion forces him to go and retrieve his wife... in the Underworld! Fortunately, Jupiter, who would like to keep Eurydice for himself, comes up with a solution that satisfies everyone...

With Orphée aux Enfers, Offenbach immediately found his niche: parody and pastiche, in this case of Antiquity, but also of the great “serious” composers. Poking fun at myths and the rather too grandiloquent habits of opera, he creates a funny, whimsical universe with formidable scenic and musical effectiveness.

The fate of one of the numbers, Galop Infernal, inspired among other things by the gossip in vogue in the 1820s and the chahut-cancan of 1836, is very special because of the immense popularity it acquired independently of that of the opéra bouffe.
Placed at the end of the Quadrille sur des Motifs d'Orphée aux Enfers in the arrangement written in 1858 for the Bals de l'Opéra by Isaac Strauss (1806-1888), it was revived in London ten years later under the name of French cancan, and has since been the emblematic music of the famous Parisian shows at the Moulin-Rouge, the Lido and the Folies Bergère.

Born on 20 June 1819 in Cologne, the son of a synagogue cantor, Jacques Offenbach (real name Jakob Eberst) began composing at the age of nine and showed great talent for the cello. His father sent him to study in Paris, the only city at the time where a Jewish musician could hope to make a career. At the age of fourteen, he was admitted by dispensation to the Paris Conservatoire, then directed by Luigi Cherubini.

He joined the Opéra Comique orchestra as a cellist, where he was noticed by Jacques Halévy. The revolution of 1848 forced him to return temporarily to Cologne. On his return in 1850, he was appointed conductor at the Théâtre Français.

In 1855, he composed La Reine des îles, which met with some success, and founded the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens, which he directed until 1866. He premiered many of his works there, including his first great success, Orphée aux Enfers (1858). With the librettists Meilhac and Halévy, he created the French opéra-bouffe. One masterpiece followed another: La Belle Hélène (1864), Bluebeard (1866), La Vie parisienne and La Grande Duchesse de Gérolstein (1867), La Périchole (1868), and so on.

Offenbach's work reflected the joie de vivre and insouciance of the time, while at the same time conveying a certain amount of political and social criticism. From then on, he reigned over the musical scene of the Second Empire, but the 1870 war with Germany dealt a fatal blow to his success in France, and he had to leave Paris once again. Returning to the capital in 1871, he adopted the fashion for patriotic comic operas with Madame Favart and La Fille du tambour-major.

In 1873, he took over the management of the Gaîté Lyrique where he created Le Voyage dans la lune, but the theatre soon went bankrupt. Ruined and plagued by gout and rheumatism, Offenbach died on 4 October 1880 in Paris before he could complete Les Contes d'Hoffmann, the work that was to establish him as a ‘serious composer’.

Along his university studies (DEA in musicology, University of Paris IV-Sorbonne), Frédéric Cellier was awarded three first prizes and a development prize at the CNR of Nice and won first prize at the International Competition of Musical Execution - soloist category – of Stresa (Italy).
He is the laureate of the Fondation de France and the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation and accredited teacher at the CNR of Nice, the CNR of Marseille, and at the CRR Olivier Messiaen of Avignon (France).
Frédéric Cellier is the interpreter of Francis Poulenc’s Sonata for clarinet Bb and piano with Jean-Michel Damase, Jean Françaix or Gabriel Tacchino, but also performs his own version for clarinet, piano and string orchestra of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in blue for Wynton Marsalis or under the baton of Adrian Gershwin, grandson of the composer.
Founder and artistic director of STRADIVARIUS Editions, he is the author of pieces of light music and a considerable number of arrangements in all styles and for all instruments acclaimed by numerous personalities in the music world:

"Frédéric Cellier has produced a number of adaptations of Georges Auric's works with such talent and precision that I consider them a natural addition to his chamber music catalogue."
Michèle AURIC - Georges Auric's widow

"To Frédéric Cellier, excellent musician and tireless arranger."
Jean FRANÇAIX - Composer and pianist

"Arranging a musical work is always a delicate and risky exercise, because it requires both modifying it so that it can be played by the desired instruments and preserving its very essence. But that is exactly what Frédéric Cellier has done, preserving the nuances, subtleties and soul of the original works while breathing new life into them.
His arrangements give all the musicians the chance to perform these compositions specially revisited for their instrument, and make music lovers rediscover them in a new light."
Adrian GERSHWIN - George Gershwin’s grandson

"Congratulations for your beautiful new orchestration and rendition of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in blue."
Wynton MARSALIS - Trumpet player, composer, bandleader, general and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, New York

"It is outstanding that Frédéric Cellier has managed to transpose Saxophone Marmalade from the saxophone to the clarinet. I thank him for it and wish its great and deserved success. "
Manuel ROSENTHAL - Conductor, composer and Maurice Ravel’s pupil

"I am very happy to tell you how much I appreciated your transcription of the Capriccio, based on Francis Poulenc's Le Bal Masqué. It perfectly reflects the spirit and verve of the score for two pianos that I had the opportunity to play and record with Jacques Février, and it was a great pleasure for me to premiere it in Montpellier."
Gabriel TACCHINO - Pianist, Francis Poulenc’s specialist

"I must tell you that I really like your transcriptions and that I think the tone of the instruments you have chosen suits perfectly our beloved composer."
Ornella VOLTA - Musicologist, president of the Erik Satie’s Foundation