Hours of fun: Ravel's two one-act operas in Cologne

By Matthew Rye, 13 October 2016

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Reviewed at Oper Köln: Staatenhaus Saal 2, Cologne on 12 October 2016

Ravel, L'Heure espagnole

Ravel, L'Enfant et les sortilèges

Oper Köln

François-Xavier Roth, Conductor

Béatrice Lachaussée, Director

Nele Ellegiers, Set Designer, Costume Designer

Katrin Wundsam, Concepción

Clémentine Margaine, Concepción

Julien Behr, Gonzalve

John Heuzenroeder, Torquemada, Little old man, Tree frog, Wedgwood teapot

Thomas Dolié, Ramiro, Cat (male), Clock

Tomislav Lavoie, Don Iñigo Gomez, Chair, Tree

Maria Kublashvili, Bat, Shepherdess

Dongmin Lee, Fire, Nightingale, Princess

María Isabel Segarra, Owl

Sara Jo Benoot, Cat (female), Squirrel

Judith Thielsen, China Cup, Dragonfly, Mother

Regina Richter, The Child

Marie Lenormand, The Child

Andreas Grüter, Lighting Designer

Georg Kehren, Dramaturgy

Andrew Ollivant, Choirmaster / chorus director

Gürzenich Orchestra

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Matthew Rye

Matthew read music at Oxford and worked in music journalism for 30 years as a writer, critic and editor. He wrote numerous programme and CD booklet notes, spent 13 years as a Daily Telegraph critic, worked at BBC Music Magazine and was reviews editor of The Strad. He also wrote for The Wagner Journal and Opera and blogged at ferneklang.blogspot.co.uk. He was general editor of 1001 Classical Recordings You Must Hear Before You Die (Cassell Illustrated, 2007) and was the author of a new series of eBooks, Masterpieces of Music (Erudition).