Until recently, Le Lido on Paris’ Champs-Élysées was a sister venue to the Moulin Rouge, historically known for its revue-style shows culminating in the traditional cancan number, best enjoyed as a dîner-spectacle experience with table service. For decades it had endured the inevitable pressure of conforming to the expectations of the tourists (both French and international) to which it catered, delivering a certain dated postcard image of Parisian nightlife entertainment. After its purchase by a multinational hospitality company and the ensuing makeover and change of staff, the venue reopened in 2022 as Lido2, thus explicitly aiming at a rebirth, with a new offering of Broadway and West End musicals performed in the original English, including Cabaret, The Rocky Horror Show, and Hello, Dolly!.

This new Lido’s Artistic Director, Mr. Jean-Luc Choplin, has had an eclectic career as a manager and curator from the Paris Opera Ballet to Disneyland to Sadler’s Well to the Théâtre du Châtelet and beyond, blurring the borders between so-called high culture and entertainment. Next to more conventional fare (in both fields) Mr. Choplin has honed an aesthetics of crossover, including for instance Pop’pea – Monteverdi performed by a mix of pop and opera singers – or Mozart’s Requiem staged by the famous equestrian artist Bartabas. Such bridges could be argued to be naturally at home at the Lido, where from the 1940s onwards ballet dancers have contributed their training and high-brow touch to music-hall shows. The most paradigmatic and interesting intersection between this history and Mr. Choplin’s trademark is The Magic Flute II: The Curse, An Electro Opera, which premiered on March 27, 2025 at the Champs-Élysées venue, with which it shares the telling feature of being named a classic’s »part 2«.