We left at the interval...

Opéra de Dijon - L’Auditorium, Dijon, Sunday March 24 2019 Conductor: Emmanuelle Haïm. Production: Barrie Kosky. Sets and costumes: Katrin Lea Tag. Lighting: Franck Evin. Choreographie: Otto Pichler. Alphise: Hélène Guilmette. Sémire, Polymnie, Cupidon, Nymphe: Emmanuelle De Negri. Abaris: Mathias Vidal. Borée: Christopher Purves. Borilée: Yoann Dubruque. Adamas, Apollon: Edwin Crossley-Mercer. Calisis: Sébastien Droy. Dancers: Yacnoy Abreu Alfonso, Julie Dariosecq, Benjamin Dur, Anaëlle Echalier, Lazare Huet, Anna Konopska. Orchestra and chorus: Le Concert d’Astrée. Rameau hasn’t been getting his due lately in Paris (or else I’ve been missing things, as I do). The last time I saw any staged was well over four years ago. So although this is a very busy period at work, when I saw Dijon, his home town, was putting on Les Boréades with what looked like a strong cast, I booked for the Sunday matinée . I’m glad I did, as this was one of the best Rameau productions I’ve seen. I...

Opéra de Lyon - Saturday May 15 2004 Conductor: Marc Minkowski. Production: Laurent Pelly. Alphise: Mireille Delunsch. Abaris: Paul Agnew. Borée: François Lis. Sémire/Nymphe: Magali Léger. Borilée: Marcel Boone. Polymnie/Amour: Malia Bendi Merad. Apollon: Thomas Dolié. Calisis:Tom Allen. Adamas: Stéphane Degout. Les Musiciens du Louvre-Grenoble, Orchestra and Chorus of the Opéra de Lyon. We don't seem to be having much luck with pre-Mozartian opera* at the moment. We spent last Sunday afternoon on an unplanned walking tour around Brussels, having quit Cavalli's Eliogabalo at the first intermission. (The press kindly informed us, later, that things had got much better in part two. Oh, well...) Yesterday morning (Saturday), I flew in to Charles de Gaulle from Atlanta, waited an hour for bags, tooled into Paris to miss the 12 o'clock train to Lyon by minutes and finally took the 1 p.m., arriving at 3... Why bother? Well, on paper it looked like Lyon had assembled a dream team...