Poème lyrique in one act by camille Saint-saëns to his own libretto; Monte Carlo, 18 February 1904.
Saint-Saëns was among the many critics of Offenbach’s La belle Hélène who objected to the operetta’s lax moral tone and its trivialization of the ancient world. In his own treatment of the story of Paris and Helen he aspired to a more serious and exalted level, even though the opera displays the triumph of Eros and celebrates sexual passion more strongly than any other of Saint-Saëns’ operas. Hélène was the first of his operas composed for the theatre at Monte Carlo then under the enterprising direction of Raoul Gunsbourg. It is also the first for which he wrote his own libretto, in strongly poetic rhyming verse. Melba sang the title role, and it shared a double bill with Massenet’s veristic La Navarraise. Apart from the two principal characters, the opera has scenes for Vénus [Venus] (soprano), who tries to persuade Helen (soprano) to abandon Menelaus for love, and for Pallas (contralto), who warns her of the dreadful events that will ensue if she abandons Sparta for Troy. Helen heeds the words of Venus, not Pallas, and sets sail with Pâris [Paris] (tenor) in an ecstatic embrace.
HUGH MACDONALD