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La Vie parisienne [Region 2]
starring: Hélène Delavault, Claire Wauthion, Isabelle Mazin, Jean-Yves Chatelais, Jean-Francois Sivadier directed by: Pierre Cavassilas
Price: $55.68 Prices subject to change.
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Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Binding: DVD
EAN: 4006680102740
Format: PAL
Number Of Discs: 2
Region Code: 2
Theatrical Release Date: 1991
Related Items:- Offenbach - La Grande-Duchesse de Gerolstein / Lott, Piau, Beuron, Le Roux, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Minkowski (Theatre du Chatelet)
- Offenbach - Orpheus in the Underworld / Davin, Badea, Vidal, Theatre de la Monnaie Brussels
- Offenbach - La Belle Helene / Minkowski, Lott, Beuron, Senechal, Naouri, Le Roux, Torodovitch, Chatelet Opera
- Offenbach - Les contes d'Hoffmann (The Tales of Hoffmann) / Pretre, Domingo, Royal Opera Covent Garden
- Offenbach: La Vie Parisienne
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Editorial Review:
Amazon.com: Offenbach's melodious extravaganza is essentially a celebration of Paris as a tourist trap, a background for attempted seductions, and a fertile source of routine flim-flams. This 1991 Opera National de Lyon production, emanating from one of Paris's chief rivals among French cities, focuses gleefully on the sordid aspects of the City of Lights, but its strongest appeal is in the quality of the singing and dancing.
The opening scene of La Vie Parisienne takes place in a railroad station around the year 1860; tourists are pouring in from all parts of the world, many in colorful foreign costumes, including a Swedish woman, the Baroness Gondremark, who is chosen as the target for a seduction attempt. An elaborate series of deceptions fills out the plot and--more important--supplies opportunities for a dazzling variety of clever song and dance numbers. --Joe McLellan
Average Rating: 
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As a musical piece, this French operetta is simply outstanding! It has a lot of spectacular arias and scenes that are worth listening to.
However, this production from the Opera National De Lyon, does not do a good job of bringing the piece to life. One cannot do a great job of comparing this production to another mainly because there isn't another DVD of this operetta. However, it is evident that this production has some flaws:
1. The singers in this production are clearly Amateurs; they do not sound perfect and a lot of times they produce a very "bland" sound that can be displeasing.
2. The set of this Operetta is also very plain. An operetta that takes place in Paris and depicts the "Parisienne" life should invest ... Read More:
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There is some very sprightly music in this performance, where the singers occasionally allow a pleasant sound to emerge (but not enough to spoil us), interrupted by tediously directed scenes straining much too hard to be funny. The actors/singers awkwardly move chairs around a lot to remind us that this is not a concert performance. Disagreements among the singers and the conductor regarding tempi are presented to us with great force. The comedy presumably depends on a sophisticated ambiguity regarding the contrasting mannerisms of nobility, bohemians, and servants, but the director seems to think that we would prefer a rather vulgar muddle instead. Artistic unity is achieved by lots of shouting and shrieking in both the songs and the spoken ... Read More:
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Fully agree with the previous reviewer. Myself being quite partial to Offenbach who singlehandedly created "operetta", a forerunner of Suppe and a whole generation of Austrian-German-Hungarian operetta composers, including Johann Strauss, Zeller, Millocker, Ziehrer, Lehar and Kalman, I'd like to emphasize certain very positive aspects of this production.
This is primarily a student effort as most of the performers being in their twenties but formidably talented. There is a tremendous enthusiasm of youth,a joy of performing and a great love of
Offenbach's delightful score. Certain amateurism is unavoidable , but this is part of the charm.
The young conductor, Ossonce, deserves most of the credit- he moves the ensemble with irrepressible ... Read More:
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"La vie parisienne," a paean to Second Empire Paris and its voluptuous delights, may be Offenbach's most tuneful score. The irresistible melodies and rhythms never stop-except, naturally, to allow for spoken dialogue (and if that bothers you you aren't cut out to be an operetta fan :o). The best-known tunes appear in the popular ballet, "Gaite parisienne," arranged by French conductor Manuel Rosenthal; and anyone who loves that piece will be captivated to hear and see the originals and their lyrics come to life dramatically in the complete operetta, the words as witty and sophisticated as the music. This production, somewhere between traditional and modernistic, tells the story and captures the satire very well.
The performers male and female ... Read More:
Rating: -
I owe 2 other Offenbach productions-"La Belle Helene" staged by the Zurich Opera and "Orphee aux Enfers" staged by Lyon National Opera(available in Zone 0 format from Amazon.co.uk)which are much better than this one. After viewing the hilarious Orphee aux Enfers I was rather disapointed by this comparetively boring production,and since the first and only viewing,it stays abandoned in a corner... With a title like "Vie Parisienne" you expect a "rich bubbling champagne" but what you get is a rather "dry Cabernet". Although it has some good moments of singing and dancing and very nice music,it somehow doesn't tie together and leaves you with a sensation of heaviness.I agree with the other reviewer that it looks more like a sung play and it's a ... Read More:
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