Paris is quickly declared the winner. Résumé. She knows her virtue wavers despite her desire to remain faithful to her husband, King Menelaus. Paris arrives disguised as a shepherd. Is that not Helen? Début juin 1865, Le Figaro donne le compte-rendu du dîner pour la 150e représentation pour l… 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. 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. He is immediately thunderstruck. She knows her virtue wavers despite her desire to remain faithful to her husband, King Menelaus. Alas for them, Menelaus returns unexpectedly, seeking vengeance, and forces the handsome shepherd to leave, defying the threats of the three kings outraged by his audacity. In her apartments, Helen prepares to receive four kings. Menelaus is invited to leave as soon as possible for Crete… She questions Venus, who takes “pleasure in bringing down virtue” (On me nomme Hélène la blonde… They call me Helen the Blonde…).
C'est l'une des œuvres les plus connues d'Offenbach, elle apparaît dans les statistiques de Operabase comme le no 101 des opéras représentés en 2005-20102 ; elle est le 12e en France et la troisième œuvre d'Offenbach, avec 35 représentations durant la période.

The dream quickly becomes a reality for the two lovers (Oui, c’est un rêve, un doux rêve d’amour. Mais lorsque Pâris arrive pour lui faire la cour, sa résolution faiblit rapidement et … In Nauplia, Orestes, in an atmosphere of jubilation, explains that Venus has placed an amorous lunacy in the heart of the women to avenge the departure of her protégé, Paris. L’épouse de Ménélas peut prétendre à ce titre mais elle sait sa vertu chancelante. When he reveals his true identity, he astounds those in attendance and elicits enthusiasm from Helen, who invites him to dinner. (Ces Rois remplis de vaillance –plis de vaillance –plis de vaillance…These Kings filled with valour – folds of valour, folds of valour) Agamemnon introduces a contest intended to discover clever people. Then the three kings come in, to play a game of snakes and ladders, which Calchas wins by cheating brazenly. The work’s formidable success cannot be explained merely by this farcical verve or grand-opera pastiche in the style of Meyerbeer (difficult for a 21st century audience to appreciate); the wealth of melodic creativity, the art of adapting the score to each dramatic situation, the musical balance between distance, emotion, derision and sensuality and the refinement of instrumental inventiveness are all qualities that make La Belle Hélène a success worthy of the operas of “serious” composers, who often despised the genius of Offenbach, a victim of groundless prejudices. This side-splitting parody of Helen’s kidnapping by the shepherd Paris, the source of the famous Trojan War, was the excuse for a scathing critique of Second Empire society and its lack of morality and rampant thirst for pleasure. Menelaus is invited to leave as soon as possible for Crete… Hélène Tessiture. The premiere was at the Théâtre des Variétés, Paris, on 17 December 1864. The cortege of kings advances, coming to open the games. The dream quickly becomes a reality for the two lovers (Oui, c’est un rêve, un doux rêve d’amour.

Paris arrives disguised as a shepherd. Nietzsche was among the admirers of what is considered to be Offenbach’s masterpiece. Every impertinence against the regime is justified by the story of the adulterous loves of the beautiful Helen, daughter of Zeus and Leda (and hence a swan), which is to be expected of a “tart” as the libretto calls her.
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. As reward, he is to obtain the love of the world’s most beautiful woman. Feeling her strength fading, Helen asks Calchas to allow her to see Paris again in a dream. The huge success that greeted La Belle Hélène marks the debut of the “Offenbachiade”, a word allegedly invented by Alphonse Daudet to designate the apogee of the composer’s career.