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Classical

Pitch-black satire drenched in an atmosphere of compelling unease: ETO's Golden Cockerel reviewed

2 April 2022

9:00 AM

2 April 2022

9:00 AM

The Golden Cockerel

Buxton Opera House, touring until 30 May

Czech Philharmonic Orchestra/Wang/Bychkov

Barbican Hall

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Petrenko

Royal Festival Hall

Blame it on Serge Diaghilev. Rimsky-Korsakov died in 1908 and never saw the première of his last opera, The Golden Cockerel. When the great showman finally presented it in Paris in 1914, it was as Le Coq d’Or: a spectacular opera-ballet hybrid, with colourful, folk-inspired designs by Natalia Goncharova that came to define the Ballets Russes in its imperial phase.

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