Verdi: Les Vêpres siciliennes
Welsh National Opera, Millennium Centre, Cardiff, 8th February 2020
“Enough work to kill a bull!” was Verdi’s complaint about the effort of writing for the Paris Opéra. Les Vêpres siciliennes was the composer’s first original work for the French capital and he had to meet high demands – a work in five acts, full of spectacle, which included the obligatory ballet in Act 3 so that the gentlemen from the Jockey Club could ogle the pretty ballerinas. It makes for a lengthy evening. “Enough work to kill a bull!” could just as well describe the challenges of staging it. Welsh National Opera has risen to that challenge.
Marine Tournet (dancer) and Giorgio Caoduro (Montfort)
© Johan Persson
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