From the specially-painted Deuxieme Empire curtain to the last detail of gloves and footwear, the exquisite stage-sets, the sumptuous and witty costumes, to the dancing, stage movement and lavish dancing, the APA production of Offenbach's La Vie Parisienne is simply the most striking performance ever given here.
One needs Parisians at the helm to make this live, and APA got them. Conductor Alain Paris began with a rather tenuous overture. But after that, this was a glorious crown of waltzes, picked out with polkas and quadrilles, interwoven with distilled melodies, the whole tied up with a great big lacy ribbon in the form of a can-can.
But it was director Michel Gies who understood that La Vie Parisienne is, above all, an ensemble piece. The plot is, on the surface, of a Swedish Baron and his wife, who see more of Parisian high life than what they bargained for. But the actuality is that this was German-born Offenbach's love affair with Paris, and Gies make it come vibrantly alive.
One cannot praise set designer Cheng Si-leung enough. Not only for the gorgeous salons, the grand backgrounds, the surprising lightness of conception, but the vigor of the colours.
Space precludes mention of every performer, save that in the lithe, almost seamless production, singing, dancing, satire (a marvellous fork-and-knife dance about a 'table d'hote'), everybody seemed to be having the most wonderful time.
The irony is La Vie Parisienne was written just a few months before Hugo's Les Miserables. And frankly, as a musical show, it makes the current Cameron Macintosh production sound pretentious and dreary.
