The outdoor romp of Philippe Calvario's Aix Festival production is dominated by the outlandish costumes of Aurore Popineau, including a festish-queen Fata Morgana who is flanked by bondage-boy devils… …Ygan Sokhiev enjoys a much closer relationship with his singers than he ever did during his ill-fated times at Welsh National Opera; he's both deft and definite with the many fluctuations of tempo and character.

The score is crisply punctuated, still recognisably Prokoviev, but he rounds off the rough edges, stressing Ravellian colour and the influence of Rimsky-Korsakov. The balance between pit and stage was faultless, allowing singers to present often thankless vocal lines with ease.

…the comic element is no less strong than in the two rival versions, partly because the sets and costumes are fun and the stage movement quite good… and partly because Tugan Sokhiev paces and colours the score at least as idiomatically as Nagano and far better than Denève, while his orchestra is by some distance the best of the three. There may not be any star names in the mainly Russian cast, but they all have strong voices and look confident on stage.