Robert le diable; Basca awards; Queen's Medal for Music – review

Royal Opera House; Goldsmiths' Hall; Barbican, LondonTo paraphrase Madonna, when the nuns in Robert le diable get down on their knees, it is not to pray. Religious ecstasy has many varieties. In Meyerbeer's French gothic extravaganza the sisters are dead anyway, summoned from their cloistered graves by the devil to engage in the lust and debauchery they always longed for. Straightening their see-through shrouds, they dance a full-length ballet with extended thrusting and grunting – astride the...

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