BLUEBEARD

Bluebeard was presented to the public the day after the revival of La Belle Hélène, whose arias and jibes were on everyone’s lips at the time. Leaving behind the myths of the Trojan War for European folklore, Offenbach invented an entire burlesque world around Prince Bluebeard, a merry widower of the worst kind.

Everything is a pretext for laughter and mockery in this French comic opera, for the man who made a specialty of musical and social caricature. Despite the overture and first act that pretend to introduce a charming pastoral tale, the counts, king, prince and counsellors clash in frenzied arias on subjects such as life and death, male-female relations, the brutality of the powerful and the spinelessness of the courtiers. Drawn by lot, the mischievous peasant Boulotte is granted the honor (and the misfortune) of marrying the wife-killing prince. However, rest assured, shepherdesses and gypsies, all the dead women are very much alive and – unexpectedly for its time in 1866 – feminism wins the day.

In the wake of his prodigious A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Laurent Pelly gives an aptly gritty edge to this Perrault fairytale, rewritten by boulevard theater masters Meilhac and Halévy. His affinities with Offenbach – having directed 14 of the latter’s works – have inspired him to create a jubilant show featuring hilarious singer-actors. Don’t miss this end-of-year extravaganza at the Opéra de Lausanne, where conductor Alexandra Cravero will be making her debut by guiding the Sinfonietta de Lausanne.