La Belle Hélène: Karine Deshayes at Toulon Opera House (28 XII 2014)

Direction musicale  Nicolas KrügerMise en scène  Bernard PisaniDécors  Éric ChevalierCostumes  Frédéric PineauLumières  Jacques Chatelet

Hélène  Karine DeshayesPâris  Cyrille DuboisMénélas  Yves Coudray
Agamemnon  Olivier GrandCalchas  Antoine GarcinOreste  Eugénie DangladeAchille  Vincent De RoosterAjax I  Yvan RebeyrolAjax II  Jean-Philippe CorreLéoena  Hélène DelalandeParthoénis  Marie Bénédicte Souquet

What a treat to end the year!
 Karine Deshayes gave all her vocal and glamorous charms to this icon of love who set fire to  Ancient Greece : 'La guerre de Troie a eu lieu' .....

She was in smashing company of a young tenor, Cyrille Dubois,  I discovered and appreciated at first sight! He has an easy way of singing in top voice which reminds me of Juan Diego Florez. He is also so musical and clear to follow. Both had a great chemistry and it was  hilarious to watch them in this splendid production  which has rhythm. It was amazing to see them dance nearly all the time during the whole three acts.  I enjoyed the added funny hints, musical or witty :  Karine and Cyrille   both jumped on 'Là bas ' said by Calchas to sing 'Là bas Là bas  dans la montagne' ( Carmen)  for a short but cute instant. This was just a hint but the whole production is full of funny added bits to our contemporary time (during le Jeu de l'Oie, silly and hilarious which requires the text really ).
The whole cast was fitting nicely in all the roles. Menelas : I found  him terribly good   at whinging. Right from the beginning, he is wearing the sign of a deceived husband : a pair of  long feathers (just like the heros in Chinese opera) but here these are the symbols of   the cuckold husband wearing horns! He played the bullied king and husband so well!
Calchas was communicating with Zeus through the  thunder symbol and that was also so funny... certainly pleasing the young audience who for once was quite numerous this afternoon, including my granddaughters who simply loved the show and came out singing the last tune ...
 We had a wonderful treat at the curtain call: it was a parade with the orchestra, then Pâris  started singing his last tune'je suis gai' joined by all the artists on the stage plus the conductor and the producer while the orchestra was playing, and we had this twice so we joined in ...,I could not help it! It was such a jolly end, they were all singing and dancing ... after nearly a three hour show.

This production is not new but has lots of charms and is not pretentious, very clear to follow and giving lots of characterization for each role.  The singing was fine, absolutely somptuous from Karine Deshayes, and the music from the pit, charming,  with that touch of wonderful cellos and violins which is the Offenbach delicate moments among hilarious orchestral 'riots'.
Like  last end of  the year in Marseille opera house,  I came out thinking I should listen to Offenbach more often and even read the libretto carefully so that not one  single joke would be missed, because Meilhac and Halévy were tremendous writers for Offenbach and his witty turn of mind.
These two artists -singers who had the main roles this afternoon are also  nominated for the yearly contest and they are both selected for our votes :
Karine Deshayes as the artist of the year and Cyrille Dubois as the young revelation of the year.
VICTOIRES DE LA MUSIQUE CLASSIQUE 2015
I could add to this list the young Oreste- Eugénie Danglade, a lovely mezzo and certainly a very good artist. I was quite impressed by the whole cast this afternoon.