We left at the interval...

ONP Garnier, Paris, Thursday January 23, 2025 Conductor: Teodor Currentzis. Production: Peter Sellars. Sets: Joelle Aoun. Costumes: Camille Assaf. Lighting: James F. Ingalls. Choreography: Cal Hunt. Video: Alex MacInnis. Télaïre: Jeanine De Bique. Castor: Reinoud Van Mechelen. Pollux: Marc Mauillon. Phébé: Stéphanie d'Oustrac. Mars, Jupiter, un athlète: Nicholas Newton. Minerve, Une Suivante d’Hébé: Claire Antoine. L’Amour, Le Grand-Prêtre, un Athlète: Laurence Kilsby. Vénus, une ombre heureuse: Natalia Smirnova. Utopia Orchestra and Chorus.    Photos: Vincent Pontet/OnP   I’m on a sort of Rameau binge at the moment. Since enjoying Les Fêtes d’Hébé just before Christmas, I’ve been reading his biographies, first in French, by Sylvie Bouissou, editor-in-chief of the Rameau Opera Omnia project, which is producing critical editions of all his works in partnership with Bärenreiter, and now in English, by Simon Trowbridge, who, being less of a specialist, focuses slightly mo...

ONP Bastille, Tuesday January 21 2025 Conductor: Juraj Valčuha. Production: André Engel. Sets: Nicky Rieti. Costumes: Elizabeth Neumuller. Lighting: André Diot. Choreography: Françoise Grès. The Vixen: Elena Tsallagova. The Fox: Paula Murrihy. The Forester: Milan Siljanov. The Schoolmaster, the Mosquito: Éric Huchet. The Priest: Frédéric Caton. Harašta: Tadeáš Hoza. The Dog: Maria Warenberg. The Innkeeper: Se-Jin Hwang. The Innkeeper's wife: Anne-Sophie Ducret. The Cockerel, The Jay: Rocio Ruiz Cobarro. The Hen: Irina Kopylova. The Woodpecker: Marie-Cécile Chevassus. The Badger: Sławomir Szychowiak. Sova, The Owl: Marie Gautrot. Orchestra and Chorus of the Opéra National de Paris. Prague Philharmonic Children’s Choir. Photos: Vincent Pontet / ONP Though I’ve sometimes complained that the Paris Opera, while supposedly short of cash, changes its productions nearly as often as the rest of us change our socks, André Engel’s Cunning Little Vixen first appeared there 17 years ago. At th...