On one level, Le Coq d’Or, Rimsky-Korsakov’s final opera, is a simple fairy tale. However, you don’t need to dig far to discover a biting satire, which was largely absent in this presentation by Les Saisons Russes du XXI Siècle.
It was like going on the journey from Kansas to the Land of Oz. After dank, dark drizzle on the streets outside, the scene inside the London Coliseum suddenly transformed into dazzling and vivid colour for this famous fairy-tale by Russian poet Alexander Pushkin.