Editing Orpheus in the Underworld (section)

===Editions===
The orchestra at the Bouffes-Parisiens was small – probably about thirty players.<ref name=simeone/> The 1858 version of {{lang|fr|Orphée aux enfers}} is scored for two flutes (the second doubling piccolo), one oboe, two clarinets, one bassoon, two horns, two [[cornets]],{{refn|Offenbach specified cornets in this score; in other operas, such as {{lang|fr|[[La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein]]}} he wrote for trumpets.<ref>Schuesselin, John Christopher. [https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1039&context=gradschool_majorpapers "The use of the cornet in the operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan"], LSU Digital Commons, 2003, p. 4</ref> In modern theatre orchestras cornet parts are often played on trumpets.<ref>Hughes (1959), pp. 111–112</ref>|group=n}} one trombone, timpani, percussion (bass drum/cymbals, triangle), and strings.<ref name=ok7/> The Offenbach scholar [[Jean-Christophe Keck]] speculates that the string sections consisted of at most six first violins, four second violins, three violas, four cellos, and one double bass.<ref name=ok7>Offenbach-Keck, p. 7</ref> The 1874 score calls for considerably greater orchestral forces: Offenbach added additional parts for woodwind, brass and percussion sections. For the premiere of the revised version he engaged an orchestra of sixty players, as well as a military band of a further forty players for the procession of the gods from Olympus at the end of the second act.<ref>Faris, pp. 169–170</ref>

The music of the 1874 revision was well received by contemporary reviewers,<ref name=gl/><ref>Moreno, H. [https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k56165966/f5.item Orphée aux enfers"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190509194309/https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k56165966/f5.item |date=2019-05-09 }}, ''Le Ménestrel'', 15 February 1874, p. 85 (in French); "Musical Gossip", ''The Athenaeum'', 21 February 1874, p. 264; and "The Drama in Paris", ''The Era'', 15 February 1874, p. 10</ref> but some later critics have felt the longer score, with its extended ballet sections, has occasional dull patches.<ref name=traubner/><ref name=n291/><ref name=lamb>Lamb, Andrew. "Orphée aux enfers", ''The Musical Times'', October 1980, p. 635</ref>{{refn|group=n|name=long}} Nonetheless, some of the added numbers, particularly Cupidon's {{lang|fr|"Couplets des baisers"}}, Mercure's rondo {{lang|fr|"Eh hop"}}, and the "Policeman's Chorus" have gained favour, and some or all are often added to performances otherwise using the 1858 text.<ref name=grove/><ref name=lamb/><ref name=mixed/>

For more than a century after the composer's death one cause of critical reservations about this and his other works was the persistence of what the musicologist Nigel Simeone has called "botched, butchered and bowdlerised" versions.<ref name=simeone/> Since the beginning of the 21st century a project has been under way to release scholarly and reliable scores of Offenbach's operas, under the editorship of Keck. The first to be published, in 2002, was the 1858 version of {{lang|fr|Orphée aux enfers}}.<ref name=simeone>Simeone, Nigel. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1004598 "No Looking Back"], ''The Musical Times'', Summer, 2002, pp. 39–41 {{subscription required}} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190524130435/https://www.jstor.org/stable/1004598 |date=2019-05-24 }}</ref> The Offenbach Edition Keck has subsequently published the 1874 score, and another drawing on both the 1858 and 1874 versions.<ref name=mixed>[https://www.boosey.com/cr/calendar/perf_results?musicid=103238 "Offenbach–Keck: Orphée aux Enfers (OEK critical edition: 1858/1874 mixed version)"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200806032012/https://www.boosey.com/cr/calendar/perf_results?musicid=103238 |date=2020-08-06 }}, Boosey & Hawkes. Retrieved 19 April 2019</ref>