Colette Alliot-Lugaz

John Eliot Gardiner conducts the Orchestra of the Opéra National de Lyon in this 1987 production of Claude Debussy’s opera of jealously and love denied, “Pelléas et Mélisande”, starring Colette Alliot-Lugaz and François Le Roux in the lead roles. The production places the story in vast gloomy castle halls, a sparse but atmospheric environment that only adds to the opera’s sense of dark beauty entangled with doom.

Revised as a Chicago gangland tale, this enjoyable Lyon Opera production of Jacques Offenbach's operetta -- originally set in the mountains of Italy -- follows a group of trench-coat-wearing, revolver-carrying mobsters who attempt to rob the Windy City's elite residents. Michel Trempont, Valérie Chevalier, Colette Alliot-Lugaz and Monique Barscha star in this delightful performance, which features beautiful staging and infectious melodies.