With opéra-bouffe "La belle Hélène", Messrs. Meilhac, Halévy and Offenbach loosen their satirical arrows on a number of sacred French institutions, such as marriage and adultery. Ancient Greek mythology too gets a panning. Here, for instance, Orestes (usually performed as a trousers role) is a wastrel intent on spending the taxpayer's dime on scantily clad beauties. From a musical viewpoint, Offenbach also pokes fun at fellow composers, deceased or living. Lovers of the opera genre can try and put names on the victims.
If you like "La belle Hélène", you'll be sure to like this exquisite production. Light, airy and racy, it fizzes along beautifully, bringing out both the fun and the sharpness. Felicity Lott, whose French is admirable, makes for a very funny Helen, while Yann Beuron shines as a cocky prince Paris aka The Apple Man.
The abduction story is supposed to play out in the imagination of a bored and affection-starved housewife, which allows for clever visual finds such as the invasion of a normal, average-looking marital bedroom by a flower-toting religious procession. In Act Two, the selfsame bed shows up against the background of an archaeological dig unearthing a mosaic on the "Leda and the Swan" theme. And in Act Three, the bed becomes a sailing ship carrying the Oracle of Aphrodite, who, of course, is none other than Paris. (Do watch Yann Beuron's flippant turn as a pompadour-wearing yodeler.) In the thrilling - and tipsy - finale, Helen and her lover are carried heavenward on the bed as if on some magical carpet. As a framework plus staging device this works out quite well. For all of us (whether young or middle-aged, plain or beautiful) need dreams, romance and escape in our lives...
Not to be missed.
