Performer: Helmut Baumann

Thanks to Barrie Kosky's flamboyant imagination and a solid cast, the Komische Oper's new production of La Cage aux Folles glitters, but could be more gay.

Smetana wrote Prodaná nevěsta (“The Bartered Bride”) as a light Czech folk piece in a playful reply to critics who said that his music was too Wagnerian, or too German for that matter – something not compatible with the growing Czech national consciousness in the period he composed it (1863–66), even though he only showed mild interest in the Czech cause.

L’équipe du Komische Oper redonne des ailes aux beaux oiseaux de La Cage aux folles, dans la mise en scène de Barrie Kosky : un condensé d’humour, de bonne humeur et de contemporanéité.