OFFENBACH'S La Belle Helene, ostensibly about Helen of Troy, was written in the time of Napoleon III. However, since the opera was intended as a political satire, the composer deliberately set his story safely in antiquity. Now, a century and a half after the work's premiere, the barbed humour is as relevant today as it was then, says La Belle's director, Jacobo Kaufmann.

La Belle Helene is being put on by the Light Opera Group of the Negev (Logon). The production will run for seven performances throughout the country beginning March 5. "The character of Agamemnon in the opera is really Napoleon III, who is portrayed as an enlightened despot, and the other kings in the cast - Menelaeus and Ajax - are caricatures of officials of Napoleon III's court,"

explains Kaufmann.

But why is it relevant today? "The characters talk about public money being wasted, and about the leaders living well while the people suffer. I think there are many places on the globe to which that applies today," answers Kaufmann, adding: "When I hear that they want to increase funding for the political parties in Israel when we have so many other problems for which the money is needed, I see a definite connection." Kaufmann, who is an Offenbach expert, thinks the composer should be performed more in Israel. "The French didn't understand him because they thought he wrote German music and the Germans didn't understand him because they heard French music.

But actually, nobody understood him because

there is a lot of Jewish music in his work." Offenbach's father was a cantor and composer of liturgical music, and the young Offenbach, when he first arrived in Paris, earned money singing in a synagogue choir. "He quotes cantorial music from the prayer services very often in his works, including in La Belle Helene," says Kaufmann, "but of course, it's out of context and distorted and is usually there to make the audience smile." In Israel, Offenbach's best known work is Tales of Hoffman. But the composer wrote more than 100 stage works which Kaufmann believes are of high musical and theatrical quality and which he feels that people in this country have an obligation ("an enjoyable one at that") to perform.

La Belle Helene was written in French but will be sung in English because most of Logon's

members are native English speakers. Kaufmann immigrated to Israel from Argentina 17 years ago. Last year he directed Mozart's Bastien and Bastienne with the Kibbutz Chamber Orchestra.

But he directs abroad more than he does here. He will direct La Traviata with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in July, The Magic Flute in Tokyo in September and La Boheme in New Zealand in October. Logon is an amateur company, but Kaufmann says he is enjoying working with them.

"They are modest and without pretensions," he says, "and they also have a level of enthusiasm you don't always find among professionals."