Rimsky-Korsakov: The Golden Cockerel ****
Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Düsseldorf, 15th April 2016
Think of Boris Yeltsin and one image probably springs to mind. In 1996, campaigning for re-election as Russian president, defying accusations of ill-health, he danced at a rock concert in Rostov. It is an iconic image, which won its photographer a Pulitzer Prize: a dotty old man, probably sozzled on vodka, engaging in cringeworthy ‘dad dancing’… but it endeared him to a nation determined not to slip back under Communist rule. In this witty update of Rimsky-Korsakov’s final opera The Golden Cockerel at Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Dmitry Bertman turns bumbling Tsar Dodon into a Yeltsin-like figure.
Antonina Vesenina (Queen of Shemakha) and Boris Statsenko (Tsar Dodon)
© Hans Jörg Michel
Read the full review on Bachtrack.