La Vie Parisienne: Offenbach (1991)

In his staging of the original version of Offenbach's opera buffa, Alain Francon followed the composer's example in employing a cast of highly talented comic actors rather than singers - with the exception of Helene Delavault who sings the role of the courtesan, Metella.

Coached intensively for the vocal challenge, the actors bring a rich humour and theatricality to this swift-moving tale of trickery and flirtation, in which the gaiety of the Belle Epoque masks the melancholy fatalism ingrained in much of Offenbach's work.