The piece
In Orpheus in the Underworld, the comic opera Offenbach premiered in Paris in 1858, the gods of Olympus go down to the Underworld and end up dancing a wild galop. This Infernal Galop became the music of the “French can-can”, the high-kicking dance of the Paris music halls. The version played here is the one in the score for piano solo published by Heugel in 1862, entered note by note for Noctave: the introduction, the galop, the can-can tune and the ending in octaves.
Everything rests on the left hand: a bass note, then chords in eighths, steady as a dance that never stops. Keep those chords short and light, with a supple wrist. In the right hand, the staccato notes should bounce; the grace notes are played just before the beat, very quickly. Towards the end, the right hand moves up an octave, fortissimo: do not speed up, it is the steadiness that makes the effect.
