The Beautiful Helen

In this fast-paced, brilliant antique travesty by Jacques Offenbach, so-called good sense is thoroughly torn from its rotten hinges. Under Barry Kosky's direction, the melodies, legs and dialogue veritably whirl before the audience's eyes, brain and ears, and of course around the undisputed centre of these goings-on: the beautiful Helen.

Act 2

For the evening a banquet has been planned, but Helen resolutely plays the chaste straw widow. Before receiving Paris, she calls her patron deity Venus. The soirée begins, but Helen tries to take refuge in sleep. As though in a dream Paris
appears and then the inevitable happens: the absent husband Menelaus suddenly bursts in! There’s no sense denying it all. Even so the kings and courtiers who come running in round on Menelaus, saying he only has himself to blame for the unpleasant situation by returning unannounced. Nevertheless Paris, the troublemaker, has to go.

Act 3

In search of distraction Helen goes to the seaside resort of Nauplia. Domestic strife is rife, and Venus
seems angered. The people of Sparta have been afflicted by a terrible scourge: husbands are leaving their wives and – worse still – wives are leaving their husbands! Menelaus has got to act. The kings urge him to accede to Venus’s wish and hand over Helen, but Menelaus has decided to take religious counsel and has summoned an even grander
augur from the island of Cythera. The augur calms the crowd down and asks Menelaus to release Helen so she can make a sacrificial offering on a nearby island. Menelaus immediately agrees, especially as the sacrifice will be paid for by the people. And so amid general jubilation Helen departs with the high priest – who turns out to be none other than Paris.