Los Sobrinos del Capitán Grant
M.F. Caballero / M.R. Carrión

Set design........Rifail Ajdarpasic
Costume design........Patrick Dutertre
Light design........Marie Nicolas
Choreography........Ana García
Conductor........Tito Muñóz

première: 30 January 2008, Nancy, France
company: Opéra National de Lorraine

Reviews

If the arias are in Spanish, the dialogues have been humorously rewritten in French --- the lewd double entendres, played with the irresistible accent that reminds us of the beautiful epoch of the TSE of Alfredo Arias. Second happy initiative: the action is transferred to the crazy nights of the movida in Madrid. Thanks to the generosity of the Opera National de Lorraine, Patrick Dutertre launches himself into a delirium à la Almodóvar, creating not less than 250 costumes of whimsical extravagance. Between "Tintin and the Picaros" and the Marx Brothers, the astonishing chase for the treasure is treated like a prank by Carlos Wagner, who imbues his cascade of gags with a hellish rhythm. The single set - a square with buildings on the skew - is diversified by the suggestive lighting of Marie Nicolas and the ingenious use of props: the ship becomes a bathtub on wheels manoeuvred by a shipmate, the condor is a giant crane, the crocodile a green rubbish-bin with jaws! However, when required, the comical becomes poetic. As in the ballet at the bottom of the sea, yellow diving suits float amidst soap-bubbles--- It's a party for all!

Opéra magazine

--- Carlos Wagner is there to take the affair in hand, and converts the spectacle into a moment of candid fun. On stage a veritable firework. Wagner takes delight in exploring the humour in all its forms and sizes - coarse, pacifist (with a battalion of most unbelligerent soldiers) poetic (to end the second act, a superb underwater scene - what a rare thing, an underwater scene in the opera), burlesque, ironic, naive, and even with a pinch of vulgarity. The translation of the spoken text matches its juicy tastiness - worthy, in some of the puns, of the great Raymond Devos. And that is without mentioning the stage design - the set is placed on an open book, that the characters wander through, discovering several traps and pitfalls on their journey  - delirious costumes, which appeal to parody (of Carmen for example) as well as the imagery of comic strips.

Anaclase

Exoticism at every stage.
--- Laurent Spielmann had genuine trumps at his disposal, and the enthusiastic reception of the audience proved to him that he had scored a bull's eye --- The set of Rifail Ajdarpasic and Ariane Isabell Unfried, a gigantic popup book, is as witty as it is efficient. Patrick Duterte has invented 300 delirious costumes, and Carlos Wagner's staging teems with visual ideas. --- Each episode is a feast of unexpected colour, a sequence of amusing gags, animated by the choreography of Ana García. The eyes are delighted; the ear doesn't get a rest. The music is delicious, and the actor-singers form the most harmonious team. A most accomplished change of scene.

Les Echos

A zany Zarzuela
The staging lives through C. Wagner
Fortunate  idea to stage this rare Zarzuela! It's success is mainly due to the zany staging of Carlos Wagner, who leaves his characters in the street in Madrid where the story begins, as if the heroes had done nothing but dream (the story inspired by Jules Verne). A concept served well by an amusing set, with buildings on the skew, that sit on a huge open book---

Classica