Robert di Diable, Royal Opera House

Being home for the holidays, I was delighted to receive an email from the Royal Opera House offering student standby tickets for the last performance of Robert di Diable. 

Accompanied by my friend Matt (who had made the effort to come from the Devonshire countryside to see something at the opera house for the first time) we were rather amused when we realised that the last tickets I had bought were in fact standing in the stalls. This wasn't quite so amusing when we discovered that the opera was in fact six acts long; totalling four and a half hours. 

Luckily during the interval between acts 2 and 3, Matt managed to fight the other standing audience members for two empty seats. 

I was very unsure how I felt about the production.
It was certainly the best visual production I've ever seen. The set was extravagant and colourful, a real feast for the eyes and it was something that I've never seen a director create before. I am keen to see more of Laurent Pelly's work in the future, even if it is to marvel at his set design. 

As expected, the orchestra and singers were fantastic, especially the mezzo-soprano Marina Poplavskaya who played the character of Alice in the production. Even though the opera was full vocal acrobatics with the stratospheric, coloratura soprano role and the ridiculously low bass notes, something just didn't click for me. 

I think the fault mostly fell with the opera itself. The opera is overly long and some sections could reasonably be cut and it wouldn't deter the plot. The plot itself is complicated; the first two acts almost seem disjointed to the rest of the opera. The music is a strange combination of Rossini arias, Gilbert and Sullivan chorus numbers and Wagnerian drama. 

I think Laurent Pelly did a fantastic job with this opera regardless, but I do believe if this production is done again, some numbers should be considered for the chopping board.