Photo: Delahaye Photographie

Laurent Pelly, opera director

'I’ve always held that Massenet’s Manon is an outright masterpiece, but never until now seen a performance that justified my belief. Laurent Pelly’s production has the great virtue of taking the characters’ emotional turmoil seriously, and telling the story with crystalline clarity. Nothing is souped up, nothing sugared: this becomes a credible human tragedy, in which greedy impulsive youth is outsmarted by venal hypocritical middle age.'

Daily Telegraph - Massenet’s Manon, Royal Opera House

'…. In moments like this Pelly seized unashamedly upon the “musical theatre” ambience of Massenet’s score choreographing Manon’s “turn” to perfection and giving Netrebko her kittenish head.'

Independent - Massenet’s Manon, Royal Opera House

“The La Monnaie production, which sees the director and costume designer Laurent Pelly making his debut in the house, attends to the easy charm of the score with a pleasingly simple production style that yet allows itself humorous flourishes; particularly impressive is the knight’s flailing windmill aerodynamics, and the crowd scenes where Dulcinée’s four suitors — moustachioed and smarmy roles, two of them trouser — contain a blizzard of energy with pointed dramatic focus. The subtle standing lean of the Don in the final act conveys so much, and is typical of the productions smarts and elegance.”

Musicalcriticism.com - Massenet's Don Quichotte, La Monnaie

'Making an opera "relevant" to contemporary life often leads to flat-footed dumbing-down, but Laurent Pelly's poetic, witty and imaginative modernising of Hänsel und Gretel gives fresh vitality to Humperdinck's adorable masterpiece......Pelly and his set designer Barbara de Limburg Stirum don't force the analogies ­- the scenario seems to evolve quite naturally out of both the source in Grimm's fairy tale and our current crop of child-based anxieties. And the points aren't crassly rammed home -­ the production is bizarrely beautiful and very funny, using some simple but eternally effective theatrical trickery.'

Daily Telegraph - Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel, Glyndebourne

'Drop them all [the entire cast] into a production from Laurent Pelly that needs no special pleading on comedic grounds, and is by turns elegant, witty, and laugh-out-loud funny, and you've one of the happiest nights the Royal Opera has fielded since I don't know when.'

The Independent - Donizetti's La Fille du Régiment, Royal Opera House

'Director Laurent Pelly turns the ruse into an endlessly inventive romp, with his own delirious costumes, clever sets by Chantal Thomas and perfectly integrated, precise, whirlwind choreography by Laura Scozzi, which seems to echo Rameau's wonderfully expressive music almost note for note.'

Wall Street Journal - Rameau's Platée, Opéra National de Paris

Laurent Pelly's Hänsel und Gretel is available on DVD

Laurent Pelly's L’elisir d’amore is available on DVD

Laurent Pelly's acclaimed production La Fille du Régiment is available on DVD