Jacques Offenbach's LA BELLE HÉLÈNE (The Beautiful Helen) Zurich Opera 1997

This production is available both as a VHS and a DVD. Though both are from the same production of the same opera from the same theater and using the same cast, the VHS version is NOT from the same performance as the DVD version.

The opera:
The Beautiful Helen of Sparta... Beauté fatale! The story of her ill fated escapade with Paris of Troy inspired so many tragic opera and plays that this comic take on how Helen of Sparta became Helen of Troy is a real breathe of fresh air indeed!

The back-story to know before the curtain rises is that on Mt. Ida, Paris of Troy was asked to decide which of the 3 goddesses (Juno, Minerva, and Venus) was the most beautiful. In choosing Venus, the goddess rewards him with the promise of the love of the most beautiful woman in the world (none other than Hélène of Sparta, the wife of the Greek King Menelaus). And so Paris comes to Sparta disguised as a shepherd to claim his promised prize, Hélène.

After a perky overture quoting many musical numbers from the opera proper, Act I opens in front of the Temple of Apollo in Sparta, where Chalchas the High Priest meets Paris and agrees to aid him (and Venus) in his poaching of Helene. What follows is a series of farcical conning the kings of Greece (Menelaus, his brother Agamemnon, his nephew Oreste (a trouser role), Achilles, the 2 Ajax's... amusingly portrayed as Siamese twins joined at the hip!). It ends with Paris and Helene eloping to Troy, of course.

This zany 1864 opera based on libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy is supposedly Offenbach's satire of the 'anything goes' hypocrisy of the French upper class during the 2nd Republic. The music is delightfully perky and the lyric very witty. It is right on the borderline between being really ‘operatic’ and being ‘broadway-ish’... in a word, an operetta sung by opera singers. If you love fun Broadway musicals, you’ll love this. Offenbach experienced no composer’s block in writing hook-infested tunes for this work, especially for Hélène and Paris (a hook is a catchy musical phrase). And if you like this witty satire opera buffe, then you’ll love Offenbach’s other great satire work Orphée aux enfers (Orpheus in the Underworld), where Orpheus is a womanizer and Euridice is a wh.. Oops, can't use that word... O, well,... a w.. worldly woman who runs off to get with the god of the Hades!


This production:
The set is minimalistic and oddly elegant (beside being very pink). Acts I and III are on the steps outside of the temple of Jupiter. Act II is inside the Spartans royal residence (same set, with addition of another row of columns). The costumes are another story, tho... a mix bag of amusingly stylized Roman togas of many colors, and most with some writing on them. Hélène first appears in one with AMOUR (love) stitched across her skirt. And Paris, he’s a walking book! This staging looks like something you would see in a grade school production of Joseph and the Amazing Multi-Color Dream-coat... but it works really well in this farcical setting. Cheers to stage director Helmut Lohner.

To see video clips from the DVD, go to:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ICL86-qG3w
and www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYCmtFFmQMM&fmt=18

Hélène, who is either a Falcon soprano or a high mezzo in her vocal range, is beautifully sung and alluringly acted by the Bulgarian mezzo-soprano Vesselina Kasarova. The big stiff blonde wig makes her look like a drag queen in some shots (especially in the VHS version), but once she opens her mouth and starts singing, she is the most beautiful woman in the world! The woman has a most sensual voice especially in the middle of her range, and Hélène’s music really allows her to exploit it to great effect. If you have heard her in a trouser role in another opera before, you'll be surprised how different and feminine the voice is here, especially up high where many a soprano would kill for the clear and free quality of her top notes. Frau Kasarova is also a very adept comic actress, and in the DVD performance she is less prone to exaggerated arm movements than the one captured on the VHS version.

I particularly enjoy her invasion and harassment of the orchestra pit during act II and how vocally seductive she is her Act II duet with Paris, ‘Oui, c’est ne qu'un reve!’), which is musically practically X-rated. She is as smooth as silk and as sultry as a dripping wet Angelina Jolie in the little solo at the beginning of the little Act II ending waltz, 'Va t'en, mon amour te suivra/ Un vile séducteur!’ (Go, and my love goes with you/ a vile seducer!).' Honestly, if any man doesn't catch that the "go" here is actually a "don't go", he is too dense to be allow to reproduce!

The late South African tenor Deon van der Walt is in fantastic voice and sings Paris marvelously in the DVD performance! In the VHS version; which captured him during a week of singing in 2 different opera, his high notes are strained and lacking in volume, and his coloratura (vocal ornamentation) highly suspected. None of that is present in the DVD performance (this is the biggest differences between the 2 shows, by the way). His Act I hit aria, ‘Au Mont Ida’ (On Mt Ida)’ in the DVD deserves all the applause it drew, while in the VHS version he struggles mightily on high notes and in keeping up with the orchestra.

The Spanish basso Carlos Chausson is the dream Chalchas in both versions! Great comic timing and vocally secure. The German Tenor Volker Vogel does fine as Menelaus, Helene’s beleaguered husband. The dependable Rumanian mezzo Liliana Nichiteanu is a spunky Orestes with a strong and radiant mezzo voice. Her phrasing and care in finishing all the notes in the DVD version show improvement from the VHS performance, too.

Maestro Nikolaus Harnoncourt leads the small-size Orchestra of the Zurich Opera in nicely brisk tempi, moving the show a bit faster on the whole in the DVD version than in the VHS one, though in the DVD version he let his oboist get too loud during the Act II duets between Paris and Helene, and that distracts a bit from the voices. It is great that he has such a light touch on this opera, since he is known more for his more ‘serious’ works (his recording of Bach’s Matthaus Passion is the best one out there to me). The curtain call for this show is not to be missed as well!

Bottom line
A perfect work to introduce any non-opera fans to opera with. Light and witty (lyrically, musically, and theatrically) without being obnoxious. This opera buffa is a big laugh... in the very best sense of the word! Go for the DVD if you can play PAL DVD. It is the slightly better performance. I'd rate the DVD 5 stars, and the VHS 4 1/2 stars.


1 VHS with fixed English subtitle or,
1 DVD. **Check player’s system requirement!!** My DVD is in PAL format, the NTSC version is Region 2 coded. Run time: 124 minutes. Sung in French with subtitle in: English, German (the menu claims it is Danish, but it is German!... at least on my DVD anyhow). There isn’t any package insert in either version.

PS: This is a complete rewrite of a previous review of the VHS performance to also include the DVD version since I couldn't add a separate DVD entry. It is a very odd occurrance to have the DVD and the VHS of the same opera production from the same house with the same cast being from different performances rather than the exact same one on different media.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good Date Movie
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 9 - 12