The point that I was not too bothered by the… (replacement) in the second act by the very good Michael Hendrick (nasal voice, baritonal, more in line with Ben Heppner).

It was hard to imagine a production created for the manor of Garsington (400 seats) can have any chance of being successfully taken on the enormous stage of the Metropolitan Opera (4,000 seats).

This is now done with the recovery of production of Helen of Egypt, founded in 1997 by David Fielding for the intimate setting of the mansion Oxfordian.

Not having seen the original production, we can not assess the conditions of implementation. In any case, the result is there: this scene is one of the happiest surprises that the New York scene, far from stingy modern approaches, we could book in recent years.

In a scene inspired surreal about its aesthetics, David Fielding manages to make interest and coherence to a totally improbable book (one of the protagonists is a “mold omniscient”) and that it’s hard to imagine that he have inspired Richard Strauss. The sets are simple and highly stylized, timeless costumes, lighting of great finesse and direction of a remarkable theatrical intelligence. Some nostalgic cardboard welcome the production team with boos, but overall the public reception of the Met, deemed conservative, is largely positive.

The story is based on a play by Euripides that builds itself on a tradition that was spared the dishonor to Helena. This was allegedly abducted by the gods to be compassionate hidden on an island in Egypt, while his “ghost” of way the perfect love with Paris.

In the first act, the mold omniscient witch Aithra comforts: her lover Poseidon has not forgotten and will return soon. The mold a vision that tells the most beautiful woman in the world must soon be murdered by her husband. Moved by the doom predicted to Helena, the witch concocts a storm that led to the sinking of the Royal Navy on his island. It soon appears that spouses are cold: Helen would like to save his marriage, but Menelaus does not see it that way. He also arranged for his daughter Hermione does not even know her mother and is determined to kill his wife at the earliest. Aithra shows him the ghost of Paris in order to keep it away some time. Then she gives Helen an elixir that restores his former beauty. On his return (empty handed), Menelaus had the same treatment while the witch is trying to persuade him that the guilty Helen was a ghost. Brought his wife along with refurbishment, Menelaus was persuaded and the curtain falls on the royal romp.

Act II: the morning, Helen awakens, reconciled with married life. Menelaus does not know what to think when is the procession of Prince Altair with his son Da-ud, and the other one rushed to the Queen’s feet. The scene offers a Menelaus deja vu a little uncomfortable. The men leave for a hunting and Helen, alone, is undertaken by the witch who offers her two potions: one to forget, the other to retrieve the memory. Against the advice of the witch, Helena says forced oblivion can be a viable solution in time.

Returned from hunting, Altair is courting the sovereign, even when he learns that his son Menelaus killed during the hunt (surprise!). The confused mind, Menelaus is convinced he has killed Paris and, wishing death, absorbs the filter of memory that serves as Helen. The two lovers fall into the arms of one another: Altair, finding the situation a little hard to swallow, ordered his men to separate the couple. But Poseidon emerges from the waves with Hermione and restored order. “Happy ending” moral. Do not miss “La Belle Helene III.”

Although the booklet is not to be taken in the first degree; it is mostly a reflection on married life and the possibilities of reconstruction of couples. How indeed do not think àIntermezzo, a libretto by the composer, transposition of a mishap after which Strauss was a love letter for another (at least that is what he managed to make believe his wife)? “It’s just a dream,” sang the Helen of Offenbach (who also fascinated Hofmannsthal).

Designed in the Freudian Vienna, the plot thus allows the most diverse psychoanalytic interpretations. From there to accept an omniscient character mold and sings …

The conditions for the creation of the book (in 1927) are worth some attention. The role of Helena had been written by thinking about Maria Jeritza, creator of the two versions of Ariadne and Women without Shadow (and performer of La Belle Helene!). But the stamp applied by the singer was so high that the Dresden Opera House finally chose to hire Elizabeth Rethberg: a sublime voice acting talent but one of the most mediocre. They failed blamed each other. Since 1928, the work was created at the Metropolitan (2), with Jeritza this time, but at the cost of major cuts (half the air input of the second act, for example, whose terrible C sharp end). The re-creation of 2007, respecting the original score is therefore the “real” creation of the work on stage at the Metropolitan.

Queen of yo-yo calorie, Deborah Voigt finds the composer with whom she has certainly the most musical affinities. We remember that this exceptional singer had been excluded from a London production because of her curves. Since then, the soprano was engaged in a series of plans and operations which his voice is not unscathed. We previously reported the degradation observed: metallic timbre, vibratello poorly controlled, unstable acute. This representation reassures us on the resources of the singer who has obviously managed to reconstruct a vocal technique. The artist here is lower than for herself, with aplomb and brilliance ensuring a role of exceptional difficulty writing. We can quibble here and there on some hardness, but today’s artists capable of such commitment and such integrity can be counted on the fingers of a penguin.

The other victor of the evening is the outstanding Aithra Diana Damrau, flying over a range with a very acute bodied voice, absolutely astounding ease (not to mention the absolutely awesome voice volume), perfect teller and excellent actress.To the applause, hard to say who, or Voigt Damrau, is the star of the evening.

Finally, in the role of “scholarly mold,” Jill Grove is also remarkable.

The female roles are so intense that in male roles seem a little bland. The point that I was not too bothered by the loss of Torsten Kerl (with announced, however, with a clear voice and sharp, somewhat reminiscent of the great tenors Straussians like James King, but the projection of more low over the scene) replaced in the second act by the great Michael Hendrick (nasal voice, barytonante, more in line with Ben Heppner).

Always faithful to the old glories, the Metropolitan reactivated Wolfgang Brendel, performs regular between years 90 and 2000 but had not sung on this stage since 2003. At nearly 60 years, the German baritone demonstrates a rare health.

In the short but demanding role of Da-ud, the very young Garrett Sorenson is already more than a promise.

It is not Strauss succeeds without a great leader: Fabo Luisi is undoubtedly a real connoisseur of Strauss, who can bring out the details of the score without cover singers by undue attention to the dough orchestra, capable of levity in an writing that can easily sink into heaviness. Assisted by an orchestra in superb form, Luisi is, with Voigt and Damrau, the other great hero of the evening.