Organization

Singer

Mezzo-soprano

Marzia Marzo

Helen

Tenor

Roberto Ortiz

Pâris

Mathew Habib

Ménélas

Baritone

Daniel Fiolka

Agamemnon

Soprano

Barbara Schöller

Oreste

Bass

Ihor Tsarkov

Calchas

Yong Bae Shin

Achille

Tobias Germeshausen

Ajax I

Paul Henrik Schulte

Ajax II

Veronica Brandhofer

Bacchis

Anna-Lena Müller

Scherhezada Cruz

Léæna

Carla Antonia Trescher

Parthœnis

Bettina Maria Bauer

Junges Mädchen 1

Junges Mädchen 2

Spoken

Herbert Brand

Philocôme

Conductor

Marie Jacquot

Stage director

Pascale-Sabine Chevroton

Set designer

Alexandra Burgstaller

Sound designer

Tobias Heß

Chorus master

Anton Tremmel

Dramaturge

Antonia Tretter

Mainfranken Theater Würzburg

German

La Belle Hélène -  (The Fair Helen)

Würzburg

Germany

Mainfranken Theater

La Belle Hélène Offenbach

The Fair Helen

French

Approved

Helena is considered the most beautiful woman in the world. However, she is terribly bored. As the wife of the king of Sparta, Menelaus, she leads an unsatisfied existence. So she asks Venus to finally find her a lover worthy of the name. At a competition in Sparta, she sets her sights on a candidate: an impressive shepherd with quick wits who is in fact none other than Prince Paris of Troy. The providence of the goddess of love unfolds its effect. Husband Menelaus is summarily ordered to Crete, and Helena receives her lover Paris in her apartments "in a dream". But Menelaus returns earlier than expected and discovers the infidelity. The betrayed husband now tries desperately to protect his honor,

With Beautiful Helena, Jacques Offenbach creates an entertaining version of the story leading up to the Trojan War. The operetta is not just a parody of ancient Greece. Rather, Offenbach caricatures the heroic models of grand opera as well as the better French society of the Second Empire under Napoleon III. First performed on December 17, 1864 at the Théâtre des Variétés in Paris, the material, which Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halevy enriched with politically explosive detailed knowledge in the libretto, still has potential for social criticism today.

English

The Fair Helen by Offenbach, From (2018/2019), Directed by Pascale-Sabine Chevroton,, Conductor Marie Jacquot, Mainfranken Theater, Würzburg, Germany

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

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Program, About & Synopsis

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