(28 January 2022) Review by Roland Duclos.
And since this *Sonnambula* calls for a truly exceptional setting, it has to be the Grand Avignon Opera Chorus. It stands out as a key element in the rhythmic tension driven by Beatrice Venezi’s unyielding baton. And what of Switzerland in all this? Supposed to be the setting for the bucolic romances of this unexpectedly uninhibited light-hearted opera, it is transformed into a set design stripped down to the bare essentials and bathed in the skilfully balanced lighting of Christian Dubet. Yet it is omnipresent in the Swiss-inspired precision of the Milanese conductor’s direction, which combines formidable efficiency with perfect aesthetic sensitivity. We must acknowledge that she has a magnificent instrument at her disposal: the Orchestre national d’Auvergne. Attentive to rendering every Bellini-esque nuance in a score that spares no such detail, the orchestra’s sections play their trump card of refinement and precision with a sense of dynamics that would be the envy of many great European orchestras!