Opera Scotland

Étoile 1994Opera North

Read more about the opera Étoile

Chabrier was a major focus of the 1994 Festival, marking the centenary of his death. The Usher Hall saw a concert performance of the surviving act of an unfinished serious piece, Briséïs. Opera North's significant contribution to the festivities included a staging of his enchanting comic masterpiece L' étoile. as well as a production of the comedy Le roi malgré lui - an even rarer piece, here given a try-out with an entirely new libretto

Perhaps the greatest risk was to bring this new production of L' étoile, given that the wonderful Lyon staging, seen in 1985, was still fresh for many, and had been preserved on a classic recording. This did, inevitably, seem a slight anticlimax. It simply didn't have the wonderful sense of style that John Eliot Gardiner's team had brought to the work. It was perhaps unlucky that the performance of the pivotal role of Lazuli was affected by illness on the part of Pamela Helen Stephen, but the entire staging was less sharp and subtle than its predecessor. The work has not been seen here since, which is a great pity..