Mechanical Pianos - Offenbach: Homage Mecanique - Le Papillon, La Diva Etc

Before the phonographic era, the most common way to diffuse music was the mechanical pianos (pianolas) and the fairground organs. Works that enjoyed a short career (like Offenbach's Diva) were diffused by this method and these cards or cylinders constitute not just the only recordings that we possess of them today but are also the the oldest and the nearest to Offenbach.Malibran has issued a double CD dedicated to this early Offenbach with 20 excerpts of works including 4 titles that have never been issued on CD: Le Papillon(1860), La Diva (1869), Le Roi Carotte (1872), la Marocaine (1879).Of course, there are no words in the opera or operetta recordings here, but these reproductions have the great advantage of allowing us to discover the music of Offenbach as it was diffused during his life and before the arrival of modern recording techniques.