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Cherubini - Médée, in concert at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées (TCE), Paris

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Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Paris, Wednesday February 11 2025 Conductor: Julien Chauvin. Médée: Marina Rebeka. Jason: Julien Behr. Dircé: Mélissa Petit. Créon: Patrick Bolleire. Néris: Marie-Andrée Bouchard-Lesieur. Suivantes : Hélène Carpentier, Margaux Poguet. Coryphée: Pierre Gennai. Le Concert de la Loge. Les Chantres du Centre de musique baroque de Versailles. Photos: TCE Instagram acount, not credited. The last time I saw Cherubini’s Médée , it was in its 1797, opéra-comique format with spoken dialogues in alexandrines, fully-staged at the Salle Favart a year ago . According to Alexandre Dratwicki, artistic director of the Palazzetto Bru Zane, the version performed at this week’s concert at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées reconstructs ‘the Médée Cherubini dreamed of,’ i.e. what Cherubini might have presented at the Opéra (had he not fallen out with the management). This has a bigger orchestra, a ballet, and sung recitatives composed, in the manner of Cherubini (or Gluck), by Ala...
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Berlioz - Benvenuto Cellini, at La Monnaie in Brussels

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La Monnaie, Brussels, Sunday February 08 2026 Conductor: Alain Altinoglu. Production and sets: Thaddeus Strassberger. Costumes: Giuseppe Palella. Lighting: Driscoll Otto. Videos: Greg Emetaz. Benvenuto Cellini: John Osborn. Giacomo Balducci: Tijl Faveyts. Fieramosca: Jean-Sébastien Bou. Le Pape Clément VII: Ante Jerkunica. Francesco: Luis Aguilar. Bernardino: Leander Carlier. Pompeo: Gabriele Nani. Cabaretier: Yves Saelens. Teresa: Ruth Iniesta. Ascanio: Florence Losseau. La Monnaie Orchestra and Chorus. La Monnaie youth choir. Photos: Simon Van Rompay/La Monnaie The last time I saw Benevenuto Cellini , it was in Terry Gilliam’s production at the Bastille , in 2018. It was busy. I quote: ‘For the first time ever in my opera-going career, as far as I can remember, I had the unlikely and illogical feeling that the music was drowned in the action, crowded out, overwhelmed…’ In other words, it was ‘Hugely busy, overwhelmingly and distractingly and unnecessarily busy, like some gigantic, hi...
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Korngold - Das Wunder der Heliane (Le miracle d'Héliane), at the Opéra National du Rhin in Strasbourg

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Opéra National du Rhin, Strasbourg, Sunday February 1 2026 Conductor: Robert Houssart. Production: Jakob Peters-Messer. Sets, lighting, costumes: Guido Petzold. Costumes: Tanja Liebermann. Heliane: Camille Schnoor. Der Herrscher: Josef Wagner. Der Fremde: Ric Furman. Die Botin: Kai Rüütel-Pajula. Der Pförtner: Damien Pass. Der blinde Schwertrichter: Paul McNamara. Der junge Mann: Massimo Frigato. Richter: Thomas Chenhall, Glen Cunningham, Daniel Dropulja, Eduard Ferenczi Gurban, Michał Karski, Pierre Romainville. Angel (dancer): Nicole van den Berg. Chorus of the Opéra National du Rhin. Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg. Photos: Klara Beck@ONR As part of a season that includes Otello , a touring production of Les Mamelles de Tirésias , Le Roi d’Ys , Le nozze di Figaro , Händel’s Trionfo del Tempo , Hänsel und Gretel , ballets, and a couple of musicals including, for those who feel up to it, Gypsy with Natalie Dessay, the Opéra National du Rhin has just ended the first ever French...
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Wagner - Siegfried, at the Paris Opera Bastille

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ONP Bastille, Wednesday January 28 2026 Conductor: Pablo Heras-Casado. Production: Calixto Bieito. Sets: Rebecca Ringst. Costumes: Ingo Krügler. Lighting: Michael Bauer. Video: Sarah Derendinger. Siegfried: Andreas Schager. Mime: Gerhard Siegel. Der Wanderer: Derek Welton. Alberich: Brian Mulligan. Fafner: Mika Kares. Erda: Marie-Nicole Lemieux. Brünnhilde: Tamara Wilson. Waldvogel: Ilanah Lobel-Torres. Photos: Herwig Prammer/ONP   With only one more instalment to go, Calixto Bieito’s overall plan for his  Ring is becoming clearer, as it ought to be by this stage. I’m going to begin my post with a substantial (though abbreviated) quotation from the Paris Opera’s website, because it sums up the story so far. We...   ‘... began in Das Rheingold with big data (...) total information and total surveillance of private life, and continued in the militarized cosmos of Die Walküre , where the digital world collapses at every level as a result of war - an apocalypse in which lov...
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Bellini - Norma, at La Monnaie in Brussels

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La Monnaie, Brussels, Sunday December 28 2025 Conductor: George Petrou. Production: Christophe Coppens. Sets: Christophe Coppens & I.S.M.Architecten. Lighting: Peter Van Praet. Video: Supersauce - Georgie Pin. Pollione: Enea Scala. Oroveso: Alexander Vinogradov. Norma: Sally Matthews. Adalgisa: Raffaella Lupinacci. Clotilde: Lisa Willems. Flavio: Alexander Marev. Orchestra and Chorus of La Monnaie. Photos: Simon Van Rompay This production of Norma at La Monnaie is one that was hit, like many at the time, by Covid. When it was performed in front of an audience, in December 2021, vaccination certificates and masks were required, strict social distancing was in force, and few people could, as a result, actually get seats. (As I remember, in Belgium, the maximum audience per house was set at 200.) It was streamed instead. Now it’s back, with much the same cast - and no pandemic. Sally Matthews is a regular at La Monnaie, and La Monnaie is where I’ve always seen her, except for the...
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2026

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Hervé (Louis-Auguste-Florimond Ronger) - Le petit Faust at the Athénée Théâtre Louis Jouvet, Paris

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Théâtre de l’Athénée-Louis Jouvet, Paris, Wednesday December 17, 2025 Conductor: Sammy El Ghadab. Production: Sol Espeche. Sets: Oria Puppo. Costumes: Sabine Schlemmer. Choreography: Aurélie Mouilhade, Karine Girard. Lighting: Simon Demeslay. Faust: Charles Mesrine. Marguerite: Anaïs Merlin. Méphisto: Mathilde Ortscheidt. Valentin: Philippe Brocard. Patrick Lepion: Maxime Le Gall. With: Céleste Lejeune, Camille Brault, Louise Pingeot, Lucile Komitès, Guillaume Beaudoin, Mathieu Septier, Max Latarjet, Célian d'Auvigny, Charles Fraisse. Orchestra: Les Frivolités Parisiennes. Photos (with slightly different cast): Marie Pétry Fewer than eighteen months separate Hervé’s Le petit Faust (1869) from Offenbach’s Robinson Crusoé (1867), which I saw and wrote about just two weeks ago . There are some parallels, in the gestation, between them. Both composers were out to impress: Offenbach needed a success at the Opéra Comique after the flop there, in 1860, of Barkouf ; Hervé sought to impre...
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