LA BELLE HÉLÈNE
Thursday 10 and Saturday 12 June 2027 | 7:30pm
Maison symphonique
Montreal
ABOUT
Festival Classica, in collaboration with the Orchestre Classique de Montréal, is announcing a major project for 2027: a bold reimagining of the operetta La Belle Hélène by Jacques Offenbach, set in the flamboyant and ambiguous world of New Hollywood in the 1970s.
Directed by Lorraine Pintal, with a libretto adaptation by Marc Boucher, this fresh take brings Offenbach’s satire into the present, probing the dynamics of image, power, and desire.
On stage, renowned mezzo-soprano Marie-Nicole Lemieux embodies a profoundly reinvented Hélène: a more self-aware woman, torn between the image projected onto her and her determination to reclaim control over her destiny.
A mythical operetta reinterpreted
Inspired by Greek mythology—particularly the Judgment of Paris—La Belle Hélène remains one of the most frequently performed operettas in the world. While remaining faithful to Offenbach’s original score, this production features a major rewriting of the libretto, preserving the prosody and spirit of the work while placing it within a new imaginative framework.
Staging the making of a spectacle
The staging is built on a deliberate mise en abyme: La Belle Hélène unfolds within La Belle Hélène.
The stage is transformed into a live film set, where cameras, lighting, boom mics, crew members, and screens become integral to the dramaturgy. In doing so, the production reveals its own process of creation.
This distancing effect creates multiple layers of interpretation, where the operetta becomes at once a narrative, a critique, and an artwork in the process of being constructed before the audience’s eyes.
La Belle Hélène will be presented as part of the 17th edition of Festival Classica in 2027, following the 16th edition, which will take place from May 22 to June 14, 2026.
WITH
Soloists :
Marie-Nicole Lemieux (Hélène)
Didier Lucien (Ménélas)
Philippe Talbot (Paris)
Dominique Côté (Calchas)
*Full cast to come...
Orchestre classique de Montréal (OCM)
Direction : Andrei Feher
Stage direction : Lorraine Pintal
Adaptation : Marc Boucher
WITH
