It is, until January 9, the festive spectacle of the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées: Parisian life by Jacques Offenbach directed by Christian Lacroix with, in the countless roles, the excellence of French singing and a young conductor with the baguette, Romain Dumas. Buffoon, joyful, frenzied, a little long perhaps and sometimes too rich (an excess of butter and cream) but a spectacle that feels good in these gloomy times …
Gardefeu and Bobinet get together … C) Marie Pétry
Paris, queen of the world!
And we hope that the double distribution -necessary, because this Parisian lifee, co-produced by the Bru Zane Foundation and various provincial operas, is performed every day (with the exception of December 24 and 25 and January 1) and requires the singer-actors to have crazy energy – will avoid one of these cancellations which are starting to appear in the world of performing arts. So as not to add a dead Paris to this Paris if queen of the world described by Offenbach and his librettists: a Paris of the Second Empire (1866) where flock, as we sing in a famous choir from the first act, Italians, Brazilians, Dutch, Japanese, Spanish, Romagna, Egyptians and Prussians and many others, English or Russians. For more or less obvious reasons, favored by the incredible development of the railroad, the desire to see a new town (that of Haussmann), for women the attraction of spending husbands’ money in the famous (and recent) Department stores, for men … eh! well, it is enough to remember, at the highest level, the future Edward VII frequenting the most encanaillées places or the parade of the Russian Grand Dukes for whom the vodka flowed freely.
All the young women around Gondremarck C) Vincent Pontet
Get it that far …
This is how the Baron and Baroness de Gondremarck, Danish, landed from this small country with such austere customs, and who were taken over by Raoul de Gondrefeu, a young nobleman who wanted to serve as their guide during their stay in Paris. By lodging them first with him, making them believe that they are at the Grand Hotel (here, it is one of the small hotels … of the Grand Hotel), prestigious establishment in the Opera district which still exists in its Napoleon III juice. Raoul has his sights set on the baroness, the baron wants stick to it there, with, in particular, a certain Métella, courtesan who was the mistress of Gondrefeu as of her friend Bobinet, the nephew of the Marchioness of Quimper-Karadec.
The duo of the shoemaker and the glove maker C) Vincent Pontet
A frenzied atmosphere
We will not go further in the story of an intrigue that obviously stacks up misunderstandings, meetings that should not take place (Feydeau was however only a little boy), false identities, reversals, all of this. at a frantic pace, thanks to our friends Meilhac and Halévy who sign one of their best booklets and also of course to the brilliant Offenbach who multiplies the tubes: the choir already mentioned, the aria of Gondremarck, that of the Brazilian ( I am Brazilian, I have gold), that of the bootmaker and the glove maker, the I am the widow of a colonel, the duo of Blue country, marvel of poetry sung by Pauline and the baron, the finale of act III, Fire everywhere / Let go of everything, as frenzied as the final itself, Yes, there you have it, Parisian life … A variant Offenbach, as he knows how to do (and we do not credit it so often) the climates, the atmospheres, capable of “plucking” us by a little seasoning of melancholy in the middle of all this trepidance … trepidance which is at the very heart of Parisian life because, according to the principle attributed to Feydeau, if the characters stop for a moment, they fall …
These ladies again; in the bottom Quimper-Karadec, and Métella in the neckline C) Vincent Pontet
Everyone plays a role in a world of pleasures
This in fact also masks how much Offenbach, recognized as a master in the description of the manners of his time (even allegorically as in The beautiful Helena Where Orpheus in the Underworld), is far from being just that in Parisian life or, more exactly, is capable of going very far in clarifying the hypocrisies at all levels of which the daily life of this society is made. A little gravity therefore: to note that all the characters of Parisian life play a role. Nobody is what he is, some descending, others rising in the social ladder, a chambermaid becoming baroness, a colonel glove, a nobliau tourist guide, a Danish baron pillar of a cabaret, a domestic diplomat of high rank. And these changes of identity, in places that are transformed into something else (again in both directions, a bachelor apartment becomes a luxury hotel, a table d’hôte mansion hosting an orgy), go to the end, when , taking up the disguise of Marriage of Figaro Mozartiennes, the baroness reveals the deception of the baron, in this other restaurant parallel where, as Métella sings to whom the moral of the story returns, When the night has just spread its veils / The stars shine / From the gallant world. And further (we can’t resist the pleasure of giving the whole tirade) At midnight ringing the party begins / Much cut stops / We can see them coming out / Pretty gentlemen and young women / Who come, ladies / To have fun! / The flower of the basket, brunettes, blondes, / And, of course, redheads too / Pretty gentlemen are from all worlds / It’s a little mixed, what we find here.
Métella, queen of the night C) Marie Pétry
Quality of writing, troop spirit
The whole tirade, because it is beautifully written by Meilhac and Halévy, in opera verses which are often very beautiful verses, showing in any case a quality of writing that they have rarely achieved, and there of course we speak of the text, among all these texts of the XIXth century which have not always aged well in our ears. We will regret all the more (but we do not know if it is the original text or if it has been adapted, and by whom) that the spoken interventions are, precisely, often too long, slowing the pace, unless Christian Lacroix, who signs his first production, has hardly devoted himself to directing actors and singers, some of whom are excellent in the game (Gondrefeu and the baron, amazing), others quite funny but who make it a few tons (Ingrid Perruche in Madame de Quimper-Karadec)
The “military trio”: the baron,
Urbain (disguised in general), Prosper (disguised as a diplomat) C) Vincent Pontet
The first staging of Christian Lacroix
A Christian Lacroix who is doing quite well, having fun like crazy imagining costumes that are both plausible and delusional (the tails of … fox, astrakhan (?) Adorning the baron’s frock coat as if he came from the Far North when he comes … only from Copenhagen) but which, in an overloaded setting (often wisely), succeeds in organizing the ensembles, in energizing the choreographic scenes (signed Glysleïn Lefever, remarkable when they concern the whole troop), to find the atmosphere of the time as we imagine it today! But it was not useful to double several tunes of mimicry by the dancers and a set of gestures which distract attention, add nothing, are sometimes even rather unwelcome …
The baron and the baroness, confronted with themselves C) Marie Pétry
From the cast that we had that evening, we will highlight the magnificent baron of Franck Le Guérinel and the excellent Gardefeu of Rodolphe Briand. The others, very good, the Bobinet of Marc Mauillon, the Brazilian of Eric Huchet (also in two other roles, of which that of Bottier) like the Urban of Laurent Kubla or the Prosper of Carl Ghazarossian – superb Military trio as Offenbach had already written in The beautiful Helena Where The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein. On the women’s side, very pretty Gabrielle by Jodie Devos, beautiful Métella by Aude Extrémo, Pauline by Elena Galitskaïa, the baroness by Sandrine Buendia: perhaps the projection could be better but the slaughter of the characters is strong commendable.
And it all ends with dancing … C) Marie Pétry
A young chef who energizes groups
Romain Dumas, young chef who gains access to court of the great, conducts Les Musiciens du Louvre and the Namur choir with an energy that is a pleasure to see. But not that: able to slow down in the more poetic moments, to give a climate to the interludes which separate the acts, he achieves something which really makes the difficulty of this music, the incessant changes of rhythm, including in the fast pieces, and it takes real attention to put In the right way the singer, the musician, the desk, who would have lost his way. Dumas keeps that attention for nearly three hours, the inevitable small shifts never last long, and he also draws some very nice moments from the orchestra, also giving Offenbach that poetic dimension that is so often found in him. , but hidden behind his reputation as an entertainer.
Yes, a show that feels good.
Parisian life by Jacques Offenbach, directed by Christian Lacroix, musical direction by Romain Dumas. Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Paris, until January 9. At 7:30 p.m., 5 p.m. on Sunday. Non-stop on December 24 and 25 and January 1.
The other cast brings together Florie Valiquette (Gabrielle), Eléonore Pancrazi (Métella), Marion Grange (the Baroness), Flannan Obé (Gardefeu), Laurent Deleuil (Bobinet), Marc Labonnette (Le Baron) or Damien Bigourdan (the Brazilian)