We left at the interval...

Théâtre des Champs Elysées (TCE), Paris, Wednesday December 3 2025 Conductor: Marc Minkowski. Production and Costumes: Laurent Pelly.Sets: Chantal Thomas.Lighting: Michel Le Borgne. Robinson: Sahy Ratia. Edwige: Julie Fuchs. Vendredi: Adèle Charvet. Sir William Crusoé: Laurent Naouri. Toby: Marc Mauillon. Jim-Cocks: Rodolphe Briand. Suzanne: Emma Fekete. Deborah: Julie Pasturaud. Atkins: Matthieu Toulouse. Extras: Dan Azoulay, Antoine Lafon, José-Maria Mantilla, Pascal Oumakhlouf. Les Musiciens du Louvre, accentus choir. Photos: Vincent Pontet This article will begin with a bit of background chat about Laurent Pelly and Marc Minkowski’s ‘partnership’ over many years, and as it’s a rarity, about Robinson Crusoé . This can just be skipped if you aren’t interested. Many of us have been grateful over the years for all the pleasure, the sheer enjoyment brought to us by the Pelly-Minkowski ‘duo’, starting more than two decades ago with memorable productions - live, on disc and DVD - of Offen...

ONP Garnier, Thursday June 26 2025 Conductor: Michele Spotti. Production: Barrie Kosky. Sets: Rufus Didwiszus. Costumes: Victoria Behr. Lighting: Ulrich Eh. Choreography: Otto Pichler. Falsacappa: Marcel Beekman. Fiorella: Marie Perbost. Fragoletto: Antoinette Dennefeld. Le Baron de Campo-Tasso: Yann Beuron. Le Chef des carabiniers: Laurent Naouri. Le Duc de Mantoue: Mathias Vidal. Le Comte de Gloria-Cassis: Philippe Talbot. La Princesse de Grenade: Eugénie Joneau. Carmagnola: Leonardo Cortellazzi. Domino: Éric Huchet. Barbavano: Franck Leguérinel. Pietro: Rodolphe Briand. Zerlina: Héloïse Poulet. Fiametta: Clara Guillon. Bianca: Maria Warenberg. La Marquise: Doris Lamprecht. La Duchesse: Helene Schneiderman. Le Précepteur: Luis-Felipe Sousa. Cicinella: Marine Chagnon. Adolphe de Valladolid: Seray Pinar. Antonio: Sandrine Sarroche. Sangrietta/Pipa: Manon Barthélémy. Tortilla: Francesca Lo Bue. Burratina: Cécile L’Heureux. Castagnetta/Pipetta: Corinne Martin. Pizzaiolo: Victorien Bonnet...

Opéra Comique, Paris, Friday February 3 2023 Conductor: Alexandra Cravero/ Production & Costumes: Laurent Pelly. Production reprised by: Héloïse Sérazin. Sets: Barbara de Limburg. Lighting: Joël Adam. Le roi V’lan: Franck Leguérinel. Le prince Caprice: Arthur Roussel. La princesse Fantasia: Ludmilla Bouakkaz. Microscope: Mateo Vincent-Denoble. Le roi Cosmos: Enzo Bishop. Flama: Violette Clapeyron. Popotte: Rachel Masclet. Cactus: Micha Calvez-Richer. Demoiselles d'Honneur: Salomé Baslé, Justine Chauzy Le Joly, Judith Gasnier, Airelle Groleau, Maxence Hermann. Maîtrise Populaire de l'Opéra Comique. Orchestre Les Frivolités Parisiennes. Photos: Stefan Brion, Opéra Comique I've sometimes been known to complain that, based on scraps of conversation overheard in the foyer, some people show up at the opera house with only the vaguest idea, if any, of what they're going to see. On Friday, the arroseur was arrosé : I hadn't paid enough attention when booking, though I...

Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Paris, Tuesday November 15 2022 Conductor: Marc Minkowski. Production and Costumes: Laurent Pelly. New dialogues: Agathe Mélinand. Sets: Chantal Thomas. Lighting: Michel Le Borgne. La Périchole: Antoinette Dennefeld. Piquillo: Stanislas de Barbeyrac. Don Andrès de Ribeira: Laurent Naouri. Le Comte Miguel de Panatellas: Rodolphe Briand. Don Pedro de Hinoyosa: Lionel Lhote. Guadalena/Manuelita: Chloé Briot. Berginella/Ninetta: Alix Le Saux. Mastrilla/Brambilla: Eléonore Pancrazi. Frasquinella: Natalie Pérez. Le vieux prisonnier/Le Marquis de Tarapote: Eddy Letexier. Le premier notaire: Mitesh Khatri. Le deuxième notaire: Jean-Philippe Fourcade. Les Musiciens du Louvre. Chorus of the Bordeaux Opera. All photos: Vincent Pontet / TCE Many people must have been as pleased as I was to see Marc Minkowski and Laurent Pelly were scheduled to pair up again, after twenty years or more (eek!), for La Périchole . Pelly is no more infallibly brilliant than any other direc...

Opéra Comique, Paris, Wednesday May 25 2022 Conductor: Julien Leroy. Production: Valérie Lesort. Sets: Audrey Vuong. Costumes: Vanessa Sannino. Lighting: Christian Pinaud. Choreography: Yohann Têté. Puppets: Carole Allemand. La Périchole: Stéphanie d'Oustrac. Piquillo: Philippe Talbot. Don Andrès de Ribeira: Tassis Christoyannis. Don Miguel de Panatellas: Eric Huchet. Don Pedro de Hinoyosa: Lionel Peintre. First notary/Tarapote/old prisoner: Thomas Morris. Second notary: Quentin Desgeorges. Berginella, Frasquinella: Marie Lenormand. Mastrilla, Brambilla: Lucie Peyramaure. Guadalena, Manuelita: Julie Goussot. Ninetta: Julia Wischniewski. Orchestre de chambre de Paris. Les Eléments chorus. Photos: Stéfan Brion Perhaps I'm an irredeemable misery-guts. But if so, I'm not alone. Halfway through La Périchole , my neighbour turned to me: He : Je peux dire quelque chose ? (Can I say something?) Me : Ça ne décolle pas ? (It isn't taking off?) He : Je m'emmerde. (I'm b...

Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Paris, Tuesday January 4 2022 Conductor: Romain Dumas. Production, sets and costumes: Christian Lacroix, assisted by Laurent Delvert and Romain Gilbert. Choreography: Glyslein Lefever. Lighting: Bertrand Couderc. Gabrielle: Jodie Devos. Gardefeu: Rodolphe Briand. Bobinet: Marc Mauillon. Le Baron: Franck Leguérinel. La Baronne: Marion Grange. Métella: Aude Extrémo. Le Brésilien/Gontran/Frick: Eric Huchet. Urbain/Alfred: Philippe Estèphe. Pauline: Elena Galitskaya. Clara: Louise Pingeot. Bertha: Marie Kalinine. Madame de Quimper-Karadec: Ingrid Perruche. Joseph/Alphonse/Prosper: Carl Ghazarossia. Madame de Folle-Verdure: Caroline Meng. Les Musiciens du Louvre – Académie des Musiciens du Louvre, in partnership with the Atlantique youth orchestra. Namur chamber choir. Photo: Vincent Pontet The Palazzetto Bru Zane has been doing some great work ('doing the Lord's work', as a darling old lady in New York put it just the other day, after enjoying the pr...

Studio Marigny, Paris, Sunday January 20 2019 Production, sets, costumes: Lola Kirchner. Lighting: Cyril Monteil. Giraffier, Séraphin: Flannan Obé. Patachon, Fignolet: Raphaël Brémard. Piano: Christophe Manien. In case anyone doesn’t already know: The vocation of the Palazzetto Bru Zane – Centre de Musique Romantique Française is the rediscovery and international promotion of the French musical heritage of the long nineteenth century (1780-1920). Its interests range from chamber music to the orchestral, sacred and operatic repertories, not forgetting the lighter genres characteristic of the ‘esprit français’ of the nineteenth century (chanson, opéra-comique, operetta). The Centre was inaugurated in 2009 and has its headquarters in a Venetian palazzo dating from 1695 which was specially restored for this purpose. [From the Bru-Zane website] Over the past few years, I’ve enjoyed rediscovering some rare French operas through Bru Zane’s recordings, so I was glad to see they wer...

Opéra Comique at the Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, Thursday February 16 2017 Conductor: Laurent Campellone. Production: Thomas Jolly. Sets: Thibaut Fack. Costumes: Sylvette Dequest. Lighting: Antoine Travert, Philipe Berthomé. Fantasio: Marianne Crebassa. Le roi de Bavière: Franck Leguérinel. La princesse Elsbeth: Marie-Eve Munger. Le prince de Mantoue: Jean-Sébastien Bou. Marinoni: Loïc Félix. Flamel: Alix Le Saux. Spark: Philippe Estèphe. Facio: Enguerrand de Hys. Max: Kevin Amiel. Hartmann: Flannan Obé. Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. Chœur Aedes. Offenbach Director Thomas Jolly is currently the French critics' coqueluche and can do no wrong. (If you look coqueluche up you'll find it means whooping-cough, but also, more or less, heath-throb, pin-up or idol.) His first opera was Eliogabalo at Garnier last September. I found myself in a small minority of curmudgeonly, Statler-and-Waldorf dissenters on that one. Fantasio is an improvement, but I still don...

Opéra Comique, Paris, Monday June 27 2011 Conductor: François-Xavier Roth. Production: Macha Makeïeff and Jérôme Deschamps.Costumes: Macha Makeïeff. Lighting: Marie-Christine Soma. Falsacappa: Eric Huchet. Fragoletto: Julie Boulianne. Fiorella: Daphné Touchais. Pietro: Franck Leguérinel. Le Comte de Gloria Cassis: Philippe Talbot. Le Baron de Campo Tasso: Francis Dudziak. Le Prince (Duc de Mantoue): Martial Defontaine. Le Chef des carabiniers: Fernand Bernadi. Antonio: caissier du prince: Loïc Félix. Carmagnola: Léonard Pezzino. Domino: Thomas Morris. Barbavano: Antoine Garcin. Pipo: Jean-Marc Martinez. Adolphe de Valladolid, un page: Marc Molomot. Princesse de Grenade: Michèle Lagrange. Zerlina, La Duchesse: Christine Rigaud. Le Précepteur: Ronan Debois. Chorus of the Toulon Opera. Orchestre Les Siècles. Passing in 24 hours from one end of the French romantic spectrum to the other, I found myself mixing them up as I prepared to write and, for a brief moment, thinking dead chicke...

La Monnaie, Brussels, Sunday February 11 2007 Luc Brewaeys - L'uomo dal fiore in bocca Offenbach - Monsieur Choufleuri restera chez lui le... Conductor: Patrick Davin. Production: Frédéric Dussenne. L'uomo dal fiore in bocca: Davide Damiani. Un pacifico avventore: Yves Saelens. Tre voci femminili: Hendrieckje Van Kerckhove, Pati Helen-Kent, Isabelle Everarts de Velp. Monsieur Choufleuri: Michel Trempont. Chrysodule Babylas: Yves Saelens. Petermann: Lionel Lhote. Monsieur Balandard: Pierre Doyen. Ernestine: Hendrickje Van Kerckhove. Madame Balandard: Pati Helen-Kent. Orchestra and Chorus of La Monnaie. I was just about able to find a link between the works in last week’s double-bill in Paris, but this Sunday in Brussels I was hard put to dream one up. Was it meant to be a stark lesson on our persistent frivolity when we ought instead to be preparing for certain death? Apparently not: the director, Frédéric Dussenne, asked Bernard Foccroulle, director of La Monnaie, who told him ...