Organization

Assistant Director

Alexandar Mutafchiyski

Singer

Tenor

Plamen Georgiev

Ménélas

Alexander Mutafchiysky

Plamen Dolapchiev

Pâris

Hristo Ganevski

Mezzo-soprano

Ilina Mihaylova

Helen

Lilia Ilieva

Bass

Velin Mihaylov

Calchas

Spoken

Anatoli Romanov

Philocôme

Lev Karavan

Kaloyan Lulchev

Pandova

Rozalia Zhelyazkova

Unona

Meglena Stradalska

Venus

Maria Pavlova

Minerva

Baritone

Ivo Yordanov

Agamemnon

Lyudmil Petrov

Ilko Zahariev

Achille

Nikolay Dimitrov

Ajax I

Dimitar Iliev

Ajax II

Stage director

Svetozar Donev

Conductor

Krastin Nastev

Choreographer

Anna Doneva

Set designer

Ivan Tokadjiev

Costume designer

Anna-Maria Tokadjieva

Chorus master

Tsvetan Krumov

State Opera Varna

La Belle Hélène -  (The Fair Helen)

Varna

Bulgaria

Summer Theatre

La Belle Hélène Offenbach

Public

The Fair Helen

Approved

Popular as the father of operetta, Jacques Offenbach wrote more than 100 musical and stage works with ingenious melody, Parisian sophistication and French wit. His second work, The Beautiful Helen, met its first audience in 1864 in Paris, set a record of 700 performances, and has since toured Europe and the world.

"In" Beautiful Elena "Jacques Offenbach is not interested in the ancient world, he only uses the mask of ancient heroes to expose with humor and irony the behavior of famous contemporaries. There are many testimonies left from that time, which tell how the audience burst into laughter, recognizing in the characters of the scene famous politicians. Offenbach was obviously annoyed by many rulers because he was accused and tried for ... espionage, for all his work.

Due to its current focus, "Beautiful Elena" could hardly be understood by future generations, so there are many revisions of it. The first revised version in the 1930s, when Hitlerism was born, belonged to the great German director Max Reinhard, a Jew by birth. In his edition there is an exclamation "Hellas of Greece", as an analogy to the then popular slogan "Germany of the Germans".

In Bulgaria, "Beautiful Elena" also has many adaptations, including those of Valeri Petrov and Nedyalko Yordanov. I have staged both editions at the Musical Theater, but now I have given them up and returned to reading Max Reinhardt because of his universal character. And today we can understand how real is the love for Helen's Paris, forcibly married to Menelaus. Otherwise, my current production in Varna also ridicules the current authorities. I want the audience to see the shortcomings of modern society in the behavior of ancient heroes. The sons of today's Bulgarian millionaires are no different from Orestes, who as the son of King Agamemnon leads a profligate life and believes that everything is allowed to him, "explains the director of" Beautiful Elena ", the coryphaeus of the operetta in Bulgaria, Prof. Svetozar Donev .

English

The Fair Helen by Offenbach, From (2020/2020), Directed by Svetozar Donev,, Conductor Krastin Nastev, Summer Theatre, Varna, Bulgaria

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

Cast

Crew

Programme, About & Synopsis

Photos

Further reading

Performance Dates & Venues

Venues