From the ridiculous...

I have not spent May operatically only in seeing Cyrano de Bergerac: life is not that straightforward. So the merry month of May also involved a so-so operetta at English National Opera...

A week and a half ago, I joined the Sossled Night Out at ENO's La Belle Helene, an Offenbach Operetta, with libretto translated by Kit Hesketh-Harvey.  I think the main purpose for the night was to ogle

It was a pretty good cast, the highlights being Toby as well as Felicity Lott and Bonaventura Bottone. It was performed rather splendidly, and it was clear that they were all having a great deal of fun in this light-hearted satire on Ancient Greek Legends. It was a colourful production, with lots of semi-nudity, some soprano-rolling on the floor, some inappropriate running over sun-loungers (although not quite furniture abuse) but very little in the way of a gay subtext. And sheep. Do not underestimate the importance of dancing sheep in opera.

But, when all is said and done, musically it was an inconsequential pastiche of different styles and eminently forgettable. Definitely an opera for a girls' night out rather than to be taken seriously as a solo visitor. I suppose the trouble with operetta is that there is a great deal of spoken word, and however adequately these may be declaimed, very few singers have the ability to speak convincingly in the theatre in the way we would expect actors in a top West End theatre (and remember that the Colisseum is the largest theatre in the West End). The humour was quite forced, and we groaned along in good spirit rather than laughing out loud. Very much one to enter in the "Entertainment" rather than "Art" column of the ledger.

Afterwards we stood outside the Stage Door, but Toby Spence had slipped off and escaped being SOSSLED. We found Flott to be delightful, and also had a lovely chat with Bonaventura Bottone, who we found to be really nice.

Other bloggers also attended at various stages in the run: Simon left at half-time; Barbara and Robert enjoyed themselves; as did the previously-unknown-to-mmofm Tamaranth.