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The forces of Theater Aachen impress in a suitably harrowing and searing production of Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmèlites.

Presenting Das Rheingold and Die Walküre in a single evening is audacious enough. To put on a Ring cycle in a week-end, you have to follow this by doing the same with Siegfried and Götterdämmerung, which requires something even more radical. Opéra de Dijon’s director Laurent Joyeux and dramaturg Stephen Sazio set themselves the task of cutting eight hours of music down to five.

Putting on a Ring cycle is normally considered a major undertaking for any opera company. For a mid-sized provincial opera company, the idea of staging the whole cycle in a weekend seems barely short of insane. But that’s what Opéra de Dijon are doing – Das Rheingold and Die Walküre last night, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung tonight, and it just had to be seen.

Tout dans ce spectacle est justesse, cohérence, beauté. Et le pari de Laurent Joyeux est largement gagné, comme en témoignent les longs et chaleureux applaudissements d’un public entièrement conquis.