The Diva: Fates of an Archetypal Figure in Operetta
2017; Oxford University Press; Volume: 33; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1093/oq/kbx018
ISSN1476-2870
Autores Tópico(s)Theatre and Performance Studies
ResumoHad Helen of Troy been merely one beautiful woman among many, Jacques Offenbach presumably would not have made a fuss about her. Jupiter’s daughter—the offspring of his secret, swan-in-disguise seduction of the unsuspecting Leda—was the most beautiful woman in all of Greece: the superlative is the crucial thing here. With Offenbach’s homage to Helen in his three-act, full-evening-length opéra bouffe, the composer joined the ranks of a long line of admirers courting her—a line that had its origins before her marriage to Menelaus, the Mycenean Prince. Thanks to Homer and his epics, rumor of Helen’s singular beauty reached the nineteenth century. By the time of La Belle Hélène, Offenbach’s stage was already well established among the theaters of Second Empire Paris. His works’ success had enabled a steady ascent of the theatrical property ladder over the years: from the origins of his company, the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens, in a tiny theater originally constructed for a magician on the edge of the site of the 1855 Exposition Universelle; to more permanent—although not significantly larger—quarters near the Théâtre Italien; and finally, after running the Bouffes-Parisiens had turned into a money-losing venture, moving up to famous stages such as the Théâtre des Variétés, which began to enjoy new freedoms in 1864, the year of La Belle Hélène’s premiere. Alongside the vaudeville that had previously made up the program, the Théâtre des Variétés could now put on opera and operetta, opening its doors to guest performances.1
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