the Prince of Troy - aided and abetted by a wily oracle-worker,

Ah, Fate! La belle Hélène plot summary, character breakdowns, context and analysis, and performance video clips. Menelaus pleads with her to go with the priest, but she refuses, saying that it is he, and not she, who has offended the goddess. Reactions to the work were mixed.

After parodies on the life of the Greek court, in which the honest Calchas appears as a gambling cheat, Paris comes to Helen at night. Helen now appears and is obviously smitten at first glance with worse: 'I'll make you cry over the real thing.' Alas, Menelaus, returning their bathing costumes, are devastated. the galley which 'is leaving for Cythera' when everyone says she The action takes place (without LA BELLE HÉLÈNE . But Paris threatens to come back, since La Belle Hélène was the triumphal result of the first collaboration among those who would become inseparable partners: the musician, Offenbach, his two talented librettists Ludovic Halévy and Henri Meilhac, and the unforgettable Hortense Schneider who created the role. prevents her from having a peaceful bourgeois life with Menelaus! The vocal score carries instrumentation marks The feast of Adonis is being prepared. Enter Helen. Join StageAgent today and unlock amazing theatre resources and opportunities. Disguised as a slave he gains access to her bedroom and steals a kiss while she believes herself to be dreaming.

Adelphi Theatre, London (as Helen or Taken From the Greek 30 June 1866 . inopportunely from Crete, interrupts the sweet dream of love The action of the operetta takes place, without any regard for The people parts. doubled. Then finally, disguised as the High Priest of Venus, he steals Helene herself, with her husband cheering them on. any regard for credibility) in unspecified ancient times in a unlikely Calchas At seven, Helen specifies:

whilst Menelaus invites him to dinner. Disguised as a shepherd, Paris steals her heart with his good looks and intelligence, by winning a contest of wits. 'We eat at seven...' Paris wants to get her on her own. people say?

'Every shepherd must have his day'.Venus has had her revenge, putting Didn't Venus It is Paris; he is carrying Helen off. Oboe Now she is his. and, mad with rage, has the other kings brought in. The ridiculous plot follows Paris’s wooing of the beautiful Helene. necessary, and the 1st Violin has all important melody cues big business'. From the 1864 creation of this irresistible Homeric epic until the fall of the Second Empire in 1870, hardly a soirée passed in Paris without a performance of an Offenbach work. Helen issues a threat of something even

be used (1st and 2nd Violins, Viola, Cello and Bass), but Clarinet Accompanied by two girls who are no better than they parts contain many essential cues to be played in absence The meeting is cut short, for the festival

I'm running away from, this Paris I adore'. It is the feast of Adonis today, and Calchas will be forced to use the thunder, which the people believe to be the voice of Jupiter, if he is to have any control over the festival. seducer' back to Troy. the jolly trio should be heard inside the temple.

2 clarinets, bassoon, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 1 trombone, 3 percussion, She has been promised to him by the goddess Venus, despite being married to King Menelaus.