We left at the interval...

Opéra Comique, Paris, Wednesday December 16 2009 Conductor: Louis Langrée. Production: Denis Podalydès. Sets: Eric Ruf. Costumes: Christian Lacroix. Lighting: Stéphanie Daniel. Fortunio : Joseph Kaiser. Jacqueline : Virginie Pochon. Maître André: Jean-Marie Frémeau. Clavaroche: Jean-Sébastien Bou. Landry: Jean-François Lapointe. Lieutenant d’Azincourt: Philippe Talbot. Lieutenant de Verbois: Jean Teitgen. Madelon: Sarah Jouffroy. Maître Subtil: Jérôme Varnier. Guillaume: Eric Martin-Bonnet. Gertrude: Clémentine Margaine. Les Eléments chorus. Orchestre de Paris. Whatever it takes to grasp Messager, I haven’t got it. “C’est une musique facile” - easy music – said a man in the row in front as we gathered our coats to leave. Well it might have been easy for him but, on the contrary, I find it very hard indeed to bring into focus and impossible to recall. The first two acts seemed to witter on aimlessly, with distinct Debussy undertones; in acts three and four the music had more definite sh...

Paris Châtelet, Thursday January 24 2008 Conductor: Jean-Christophe Spinosi. Production: Fanny Ardant. Sets: Ian Falconer. Costumes: Dominique Borg. Hélène de Solanges (Véronique): Amel Brahim-Djelloul. Florestan de Valaincourt: Dietrich Henschel. Agathe Coquenard: Ingrid Perruche. Ermerance de Champ d'Azur: Doris Lamprecht. Evariste Coquenard: Laurent Alvaro. Loustot: Gilles Ragon. Séraphin: Sébastien Guèze. Tante Benoît: Catherine Hosmalin. Esemble Matheus, Châtelet Chorus. Quite often, on French TV, we see 50s footage of neatly-dressed youngsters (some of the boys in dinner jackets) from Paris's posh western quarters jiving incongruously to rock 'n' roll in the smoky cellars of St-Germain-des-Prés. Usually Boris Vian appears with a trumpet. The current Véronique was actressy actress Fanny Ardant's first foray into directing and we all feared the worst, but in fact she managed to recreate just that atmosphere of bon-chic-bon-genre post-war Parisian gaiety. 50s ...