BRIDGE OF SIGHS
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Scene from “Le Pont des Soupirs.” Photo © Gilles Plagnol for Les Tréteaux Lyriques. |
For an entertaining if intellectually undemanding experience, you could do far worse than go to the 150th anniversary staging of Jacques Offenbach’s Le Pont des Soupirs (Bridge of Sighs), put on by Les Tréteaux Lyriques and conducted with aplomb by Laurent Goosaert at L’Espace Pierre Cardin (1, avenue Gabriel, 75008 Paris). Set in Venice, the story revolves around the rivalry between two doges, and inevitably involves all kinds of carnivalesque disguise. The vocal quality of the soloists is uneven, but the two protagonists, Catarina (Laetitia Ayrès) and the anti-hero Malatromba (David Faggionato) are excellent. Whatever the large chorus (ranging in age from teenagers to seniors) lacks in subtlety, it makes up for in energy and enthusiasm. Through Jan. 15. Nick Hammond
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