Jacques Offenbach 200

We celebrate Jacques Offenbach's 200th anniversary with a new production of Laurent Pelly's “Barbe-bleue” at Lyon and a documentary by Reiner E. Moritz.

Ludovic Halévy's and Henri Meilhac's brilliant libretto for “Barbe-bleu” rewrites Perrault's story as follows: Saphir and Fleurette are living as shepherds loving each other. In reality Fleurette is Hermia, the daughter of King Bobèche and Saphir a prince, who has disguised himself to be near his beloved Fleurette. Bluebeard who had recently poisoned his fifth wife sends his alchemist Popolani to the village to find a virginal young peasant to become his sixth wife. He chooses Boulotte who is anything but virginal, but Bluebeard is delighted. However when he catches sight of Fleurette he orders Popolani to administer Boulotte a strong sleeping potion as he has already done with the earlier wives. But this time things don't go according to plan...

Laurent Pelly, with many successful Offenbach productions to his credit, will stage “Barbe-Bleue” at the Opera National de Lyon with Michele Spotti conducting Orchestra and Chorus of the Lyon Opera House.

The documentary Jacques Offenbach 200 by Reiner E. Moritz will tell the life story oft the son of a Cantor from Cologne who entertained the tous Paris of the Second Empire with hits like ”Orphée aux enfers”, “La belle Hélène”, “Barbe-Bleue”, “La Vie parisienne” and many other operettas, toured the United States when the glitter of Napoléon III had disappeared and devoted his last years to compose one of the most romantic operas of all time „Les contes d´Hoffmann“. Contributors like Laurent Pelly and a string of Offenbach performers as well as copious performance footage will show that Offenbach is more alive than ever.

Recording location Lyon Opera House
Recording date June 2019
Production Company Telmondis
Stage Director Laurent Pelly
Conductor Michele Spotti
Soloist Yann Beuron, Carl Ghazarossian, Jennifer Courcier etc.