Traditional Rigoletto in Baltimore: A tribute to Verdi

“Poetry and again poetry – tenderness mixed with pain; sensuality, a drama surprising and burning, and a rocketing finale.” This is composer Giacomo Puccini describing one of the world’s most famous operas, La bohème.

When, in 1859, Gounod’s Faust premiered in Paris, it got an icy cold reception. In fact, shocking as it may sound to anyone even slightly familiar with this opera’s glorious arias, breathtaking duets and melodious ensembles, it got rejected by Paris Opera on the grounds of not being sufficiently “showy”.

In the opera world, where being true to a libretto is considered unforgivably boring, and using traditional scenery and costumes very dull, sometimes nothing is more pleasing than seeing a conservative production.

Musically inoffensive, the soaring Romanticism further makes sense given the story, in which a cast of García-Márquezian characters float down the Amazon River on a steamboat rife with passion and yearning.

L'Opéra de Lyon propose pour la première fois le chef-d'œuvre de Britten à son public : une réussite tant visuelle que musicale, accueillie avec enthousiasme par les spectateurs. 

Proposée dans le cadre du festival annuel de l'Opéra de Lyon, la nouvelle production de l'ouvrage de Puccini ne prend pas vraiment, et laisse l’impression d’une promesse incomplètement tenue.