PRINCE IGOR at Opéra national de Paris - Opéra Bastille

Borodin’s only opera, this great Russian epic, best known for its Polovtsian Dances, questions the responsibilities of a leader with regard to his people. Having ceded power to his despotic brother‑in-law in order to go to war, Igor is taken prisoner with his son. From his refusal to negotiate with the enemy to his return home, the prince’s deeds invite us to reconsider our own moral values. By divesting the work of folklore of the most elementary kind, Barrie Kosky’s production highlights a universal need for ethics.