The album's soloist, Frederica von Stade, "[moved] with grace and majesty through these numbers written for a range of Offenbach's leading ladies", but she was more successful in some items than in others.

And the overtures to Barbe-bleue and La grande duchesse de Gérolstein "[bubbled] along engagingly in their authentic original Parisian form".

But de Almeida had shown that he could elicit even more "sparkle and excitement" from Offenbach's jeux d'esprit in an earlier anthology that he had recorded with Philips in 1988.

"Von Stade has a special feeling for French music," their critic wrote, "especially operetta, to which her light and graceful mezzo brings just the right touch of chic.

"The all-Offenbach collection", he wrote, "...featuring de Almeida in strong, stylish support, shows anew von Stade's mastery of Gallic texts, here in an ever-shifting emotional range.