Artiste: Sara Jo Benoot

Opera Ballet Vlaanderen are offering up the ultimate antidote to frothy Christmas traditions with an original double bill featuring two premieres.

Cologne Opera's staging of Ravel's two comedies needed a stronger directorial response to the performance space, but the musical rewards compensated.

The unclear ideas and the excessive blackness in Thalheimer’s concept failed to convince, but Stoyanov and Joel’s presentation of Verdi’s score made up for those problems.