Instead of the usual opera fare of Offenbach or von Weber for the end of year festivities, Lausanne Opera brings us My Fair Lady, one of the world’s best loved musicals. In a lively staging that combines opera, theatre and dance, Alan Jay Lerner’s light-hearted interpretation of George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, set to the music of Frederick Loewe, might almost seem like a provocation on a stage dedicated to opera.
But Lausanne Opera director, Eric Vigié, has proven time and time again that he wants his audiences to have fun. He has entrusted not an opera specialist, but Jean Liermier, who heads the Théâtre de Carouge in Geneva, to bring us the musical with the original lyrics in English and the theatre dialogues in French.
The irresistible Eliza Doolittle, Marie-Ève Munger, and deliciously macho Professor Higgins, played by François Le Roux, will be singing their way through all those songs that many of us could probably sing in our sleep.
Remember ‘The Rain in Spain’ or ‘I could have danced all night’…
Forget Julie Andrews and Audrey Hepburn, just for now, and enjoy a social satire spruced up for the holidays.