Opera Lyon's Mefistofele: Yellow Overalls and Glitterballs in Hell
“Lyon’s young lion of a music director, the Italian Daniele Rustioni (he is 35 but looks 20-something), is passionate about this score. It’s easy to understand why: Not only does Boito demand huge forces, with sumptuous choral episodes and a vast orchestra that includes those 19th-century brass stand-bys the serpent and the ophicleide, but its sound world is fabulously opulent from beginning to end.
Rustioni’s house musicians did him proud at the opening performance of Mefistofele on October 11. Rich, magnificent ensemble playing from the pit was matched by rousing contributions from the company’s adult and youth choruses, notably in their celestial guises during the prologue and epilogue. Here is an opera that would sear the senses in a concert performance, although on this occasion the sound had a dazzling immediacy.”