LA BELLE HELENE
Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880) Direction musicale Hervé Niquet | Mise en scène Mariame Clément Opéra bouffe en trois actes | Livret de Henri Meilhac et Ludovic Halévy Créé au théâtre des Variétés de Paris, le 17 décembre 1864
Direction musicale Hervé Niquet | Mise en scène Mariame Clément | réalisée par Benoît Benichou | Décor et costumes Julia Hansen | Lumière Hervé Audibert | Vidéo fettFilm (Momme Hinrichs et Torge Moller) | avec Stéphanie d’Oustrac, Hélène | Sébastien Droy, Pâris | Steven Cole, Ménélas | François Harismendy, Agamemnon | Caroline Fevre, Oreste | Franck Leguerinel, Calchas | Philippe Talbot, Achille | Vincent Karche, Ajax I Eric Vrain, Ajax II | Emmanuelle de Negri, Léœna | Eugénie Danglade, Parthoénis | Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire | Chœur d’Angers Nantes Opéra | Production de l’Opéra National du Rhin 2006.
vendredi 5 décembre08 | 20:00 | dimanche 7 | 14:30
By Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880)
Conducted by Hervé Niquet | Directed by Mariame Clément
Comic Opéra in three acts| Libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy
First performed at théâtre des Variétés de Paris on 17 décembre 1864
The gods of Olympus are famous for their loose morals. And Jacques Offenbach mischievously ruffles the feathers of mortals and gods like a playful puppy set loose at High Mass. Offenbach revisits the gods of Greek mythology; Agamemnon, Ajax and Orestes are there; Venus acts as mediator; and Paris swoons over Helen, who dreams of being as exalted as music. Captivating sallies - and fantastically energetic chorus numbers that stay in your head and make you want to get up and dance. Offenbach is funny and wicked and risqué by turns - and sometimes all at once - as he thumbs his nose at the gods, and by extension at the prudish and hypocritical aristocrats of France’s Second Empire. Although the gods of antiquity are (alas) no longer with us, Mariame Clément’s lovely production for Opéra National du Rhin finds the "inner Hollywood" in our contemporary Olympus. And what a pleasure it is to behold!
