Offenbach : Patriotic trio (La Belle Hélène)

the translation is bad!

This is the most talent version of La belle Helena I·d ever seen. Grate Laurent Pelly.

GREEK WORDS EVERYWHERE

I like the way they are doing a grapevine step (very folkie "Greek") at the beginning of the song. I can't imagine anyone from the great days of opera doing this - like Treigle or Milnes. Possibly Cyril Ritchard...

Comme il faut de la volonté pour résister à tant de conviction!!!!

Am I crazy, or do I hear a excerpt from "Orpheus in the Underworld" from 2:45-2:47 and a couple times before that?! The part I'm thinking I'm hearing is variously titled "When Jupy Feels The Inclination"

Yeah, you can hear it around 2:17 too. I saw Belle Helene last month in Nantes and thought the very same thing. And funnily enough, one of the tenors in the production was in the same Orphee I own.

this is Offenbach where talking about, of course you'll hear blatant quotations of his own previous music, he was cool like that. :P

You probably already know this as well, but the ending is a parody of the chorus from Verdi's Nabucco.

You probably know this already but the beginning of this number is a direct, hilarious quote from the big trio in Rossini's WILLIAM TELL, and so is "J'expire!" The French audience of the time, of course, would have recognized the quote and laughed heartily.