Philippe Talbot

“Everyone steals according to one’s position in society.” A social critique, a credo to live by, and a recipe for the hilarious satire of Jacques Offenbach’s Les Brigands! The Opéra Comique’s rollicking 2011 production took full advantage of the talents of stage directors Macha Makeïeff and Jérôme Deschamps (members of the wildly successful French comedy troupe Les Deschiens) and the accomplished music director François-Xavier Roth.

Rossinis penultimate opera, premiered in 1828 at the Opéra National de Paris, is a musical comedy about a love triangle set during the Crusades. At the Opéra Comique its plot is transported to the time of the works creation with Frances military expeditions to Algeria. It is staged by a first-rate creative team: Stage director Denis Podalydès and costume designer Christian Lacroix provide stunning visuals, whilst conductor Louis Langrée leads the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées, the Chur Les éléments and a stellar cast of soloists in this delightful fools game. Mezzo-soprano Gaëlle Arquez shines with her superlative technique (Le Monde) and Julie Fuchss Adèle performance elicits more than just admiration, namely enthusiasm in the etymological sense of the word: inspired by the divine (Le Monde). A masterpiece! (Télérama), Pure pleasure! (Les Échos). Le Comte Ory at the Opéra Comique is a true musical and theatrical celebration where everything sparkles! (Bachtrack)

Spiced with Italian buffa, L’Heure espagnole transports us to Torquemada’s clock shop, the scene of his wife Concepcion’s infidelities.

An impressive masked figure, Trompe‑la‑mort reveals his true character through his impalpable latent energy and a plot abounding in tragic twists of fate. An ambivalent character, both regal in bearing and warmly protective, cruel and yet loving, rapacious and indomitable even in the face of madness, this ’Machiavelli among miscreants’ destined to become chief of police, uses his conquests to advance relentlessly in the pursuit of his aims whilst keeping his hand closely hidden. Guy Cassiers, working for the first time with the Paris Opera, portrays a three-tiered society where some rise and others fall.