Sumptous Médée in Paris, Verdi mish-mash in Brussels

Charpentier's tragedie-lyrique in McVicar's ENO staging at Palais Garnier, early revolutionary Verdi (and nostalgia) at La Monnaie/De Munt

Bent on revenge: Léa Désandre as Médée Picture © Elisa Haberer

Thanks to draconian Arts Council cuts, British opera companies have reduced the quantity and variety of their programming to the point where many opera buffs are casting their eyes enviously at the playbills of companies across the Channel. Paris and Brussels are the most obvious destinations: it’s possible to spend an opera Sunday afternoon in either city and get back to London on an evening train.

No less reachable from London are Antwerp, Ghent and Liége in Belgium, or Versailles, Nancy and Rouen in France. Together they offer a cornucopia of choice - Offenbach operettas, the Baroque works of Lully, Charpentier and Rameau, offbeat romantic works by Bizet, Saint-Saëns and Fauré, to mention only a few of my particular favourites. All these are rarely, if ever, programmed on this side of the channel. 

Such observations are occasioned by a recent trip in which I saw six operas in seven days. Not all of them could have been seen on a day trip, but they give a flavour of what’s on offer if you can think outside the London box. This season I’ve noticed that Welsh National Opera has taken a leaf out of the closest European cities’ books for this current season and next! I’ll be attending their Trittico matinée on June 22.