Helsinki

A woman in seventh heaven? She opens a snow-white set of French doors — et voilà … A sea of ​​red roses pours onto the stage of the Helsinki Opera House. This is probably how the extremely wealthy playboy Gunter Sachs buried the estate of film goddess Brigitte Bardot near Saint-Tropez in blossoms from a helicopter — tempi passati. Sachs is dead, Bardot has drifted to the political right, and their names will mean as little to Gen Z as that of Édith Piaf, the great chanson singer, also known as the "Little Sparrow". Choreographer Reija Wäre, composer Jukka Nykänen, and the superbly prepared Finnish National Ballet recreate their lives with feeling, taste, and a sense of timing. The end of the first act is set against a wave of roses, which Nykänen orchestrates with Piaf's quintessential ...