Die Banditen

One should steal according to one's social position - this is the quintessence of one of the not quite so well known in this country, but all the more amusing works from the pen of the man-thinker Jacques Offenbach.A band of robbers with a dysfunctional robber bride (gets wrapped around her finger by good-looking robbers), policemen who bang their boots so loudly that really everyone can easily escape and princes who are simply the more professional bandits - that's the stuff of this robber pistole with lots of musical wit and a large chorus. The work was a huge success when it premiered in 1869, but the Franco-Prussian War caused its star to fall rapidly from 1870. What a pity! Max Hopp takes it on in a concert version and proves: Offenbach is as critical as Schiller - but much funnier!