La Belle Helene: Act II finale (Kasarova '97)

Act II finale of Offenbach's 'La belle Helene' from Zurich Opera 1997.
Vesselina Kasarova (Helene)
Deon Van Der Walt (Paris)
Volker Vogel (Menelaus... the bald guy)
Oliver Widmer (Agamemnon...geriatric in blue)
Carlos Chausson (Chalcas... the bearded high priest flanked by the blond and the red head)
Liliana Nikiteanu (Orestes... the trouser role)
Nikolaus Harnoncourt/ Orchestra la Scintilla Zurich/ Choir of Opera House Zurich

Menelaus arrives home unexpectedly to find his wife Helen in bed with Paris... What is the guilty pair to do but to divert attention by claiming that the embarrassing episode is Menelaus' fault (for not having the decency to warn them that he was coming home early). The Spartans are distracted for a while (with Kasarova's sultry voice, who wouldn't be?), but finally expel Paris once they've recovered their senses.

If you like the clip, buy the Image Entertainment DVD. It's a bloody entertaining show!

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Category:

Music

Tags:

• Offenbach
• belle
• beautiful
• helene
• helen
• Vesselina
• Kasarova
• mari
• sage
• finale
• operetta
• Harnoncourt
• smorg
• video-bar

[Alicuche2]

You have forgotten Carlos Chausson!

[SDCmorg]

Arggghhh! I did indeed. Thanks for the good catch, Alicuche. :o)

[Spinple]

Althought I think Deon Van Der Walt is not a great singer,I like he's voice,very sad about his death

[SDCmorg]

That was a sad death indeed, Spinple. Thanks for stopping by! :o)

[Arashi110]

I was laughing my head off when first watching this performance. Totally loved Nikiteanu's Oreste and, of course, Kasarova's Helen. And I thought it was kinda cruel of my teacher to have me sing 'On me nomme Hélène la blonde' at the very beginning of our studies. %)

[SDCmorg]

It is such a fun show indeed! :o) And Nikiteanu's Oreste is so spunky (I first saw this show right after watching the Gotz Friedrich film of Elektra, quite a paradigm-shift!).

Wow! And your teacher sure didn't take it easy on you. :o) I bet it's a lot harder to sing funny song than it appears to us audience, ay? Good goin', matie!

[Spinple]

Well,I like the costume of it,because La Belle Hélène is a really humorous story and this kind of design is mroe funny.

[laetitiabee]

J'aime vraiment beaucoup cette opérette ^^

Merci d'avoir mis la vidéo.,en plus avec les paroles

[mjwemdee]

Beautifully sung, but the direction is a mess. The chorus have not been told what to do, it looks like everyone's making up their own staging. Such a shame, because this could be a wonderful French bedroom farce told in mock operatic style. The director is either lazy or incompetent.

[documentaryscene]

Morgen, 13.06.2011 gibt sie ein Konzert in Berlin (Konzerthaus, 20 Uhr) !!!

Tomorrow she is in concert in Berlin (Konzerthaus, 13.06.2011) !!!

[papillondenuit1970]

c'est une femme ça??.....

[vivegedda]

Not very frenchstyle. I've heard much better!!

[roseeduliban]

mon air prefere!

[oberscla]

It's rather difficult to understand the lyrics sung in French by Kasarova...and in Offenbach, the lyrics is more than half the fun.