Performer: Loïc Félix

Diane Paulus' staging is remarkably true to the original while making it feel like the work was written yesterday.

A human waxwork, a lottery win and circus buffoonery combine in a long-neglected Offenbach operetta, given a fizzing performance by the forces of Opera Rara and the London Philharmonic.

With Laurent Pelly directing, a very French evening sees a veritable feat of singing from Stéphanie d'Oustrac in La Voix humaine, followed by riotous surrealism in Les Mamelles de Tirésias.