Un mari à la porte
PREMIERE
Jacques Offenbach
Un mari à la porte (A Husband at the Door)
an opérette in one act
The French libretto is by Léon Morand and Alfred Delacour (Alfred Charlemagne Lartigue)
Performed in Russian
The premiere took place on June 22, 1859, at the Théâtre des Bouffes Parisiens, Paris
The premiere at the Helikon-opera Theatre will take place on March 4, 2025
Stage Director – Olga Melkumova
Conductor – Artem Davydov
Set and costume designer – Honored Worker of Culture of Russia Rostislav Protasov
Lighting designer – Denis Enyukov
Choreographer – Ksenia Lisanskaya
Playwright – Irina Gorbenko
Translation from French – Varvara Guseva
Jacques Offenbach is considered the founder of modern operetta and the master of musical comedy. His light pen belongs to more than 100 operettas, intermezzos and farces, chamber instrumental compositions and even two operas. Possessing an exceptional melodic talent, Offenbach created as naturally as he breathed, and it is no coincidence that he was called the “the Mozart of the Champs-Élysées”. The whole of Europe and then America was singing his melodies. It was said of him: “It will be impossible to write a history of culture of 19th-century without mentioning Offenbach and the success of his operettas as one of the most characteristic phenomena of the era.”
Offenbach’s famous opera Les contes d’Hoffmann and two of his operettas La Belle Hélène and l’île de Tulipatan live with success in Helikon. Now another sparkling work by the French composer will be added to them – the operetta Un mari à la porte (A Husband at the Door).
A young director, graduated of the Russian Institute of Theatre Arts (GITIS) and a laureate of the International Competition of Young Opera Directors "Nano-Opera", Olga Melkumova will stage this production.
For the first time the world saw this charming and humorous work in the walls of the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens, founded by the composer himself, in Paris in 1859. And for one hundred and fifty years this humorous and amuzing story has delighted audience in translations into various languages.
In Russia this operetta was known under various titles but it was always a success and was loved by the audience. Even Leo Tolstoy spoke of it as a “truly French thing, full of good-natured and original humor”.
Many experienced music lovers remember the famous 1977 production at the Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Music Theatre, which was the basis for a television play.
The plot is simple and, traditionally, presents an anecdotal story: a young man (by the way, a composer!) flees from an enraged cuckold husband and ends up in the bedroom of someone else’s bride. And although there are only four characters here (though there will be surprises), and the whole action lasts about an hour, the audience is waiting for a twisted plot and, of course, a happy ending: despite the dangers lurking for the characters, everything ends well and love triumphs!
We are waiting for the premiere on March 4th!