Puccini: La fanciulla del West
Tchaikovsky: Pique Dame
Opéra de Lyon, 15th-16th March 2024
Dmitry Golovnin (Hermann) in Pique Dame
© Jean-Louis Fernandez
For its spring festival, Opéra de Lyon gambled on a pair of new productions featuring works that both hinge on crucial card games. If Tatjana Gürbaca’s take on La fanciulla del West plays it safe, the stakes are higher in Timofey Kulyabin’s audacious bid in a provocative Pique Dame, where bold risks largely pay off.
Puccini’s spaghetti western doesn’t enjoy the popularity it deserves; it is arguably his most symphonically scored opera, but it lacks a real ‘hit tune’. It also has a large cast of comprimario roles and is difficult for a director to choreograph, but Gürbaca gives it a decent shot.
Read full review in the Summer 2024 issue of Opera Now