Offenbach La Vie parisienne

Talking about les amours impossibles: A myth emerging in the 19th century suggested that everything (un)imaginable in that sector was possible in Paris. Allegedly, this notion was triggered by rich American men starting to discover Europe for themselves, far from the observing eyes of their puritan mothers and brides. But all was not that simple, as we are told in La Vie parisienne. 

Bobinet and Gardefeu, two Parisian dandys, play all sorts of tricks to win the favours of Métella, a demimondaine, while getting rid of her latest admirer, the Baron de Gondremarck, newly arrived to Paris with his wife. However, the shrewd Baroness and her friends delude and shamefully expose their play. 

With its frivolous depiction of local nightlife, La Vie parisienne became immensely popular when premiered shortly before the 1867 Paris Exposition, whereas the libretto’s satirical comments on current military and political affairs were immediately censored. We present you La Vie parisienne in its uncensored version with a magnificent, idiomatic Francophone cast and in a splendidly colourful staging by Christian Lacroix, which ends, as Offenbach wished, in merriment, champagne and song.