It’s musically superb…And it’s still extremely funny, thanks not least to British-Ukrainian bass Pavlo Hunka…Appropriately stunning, though, is the Queen Venera Gimadieva…who has exactly the right luscious but steely tones, and radiates outrageous sensuality and serpentine menace. This vision of tyrant in tragi-comic self-destruct mode makes more sense than any other Cockerel I’ve seen.

Pelly may have a natural flair for comedy, such as the slapstick chasing of the cockerel by the Tsar’s two sons, but his production for La Monnaie sadly has limited satirical bite…However, there’s still much to enjoy in Pelly’s staging and Alain Altinoglu…romps through Rimsky’s score with glee…Gimadieva shines as the Queen of Shemakha, seductively wrapping herself like a tendril around the chromatic lines of her Hymn to the Sun.

The Golden Cockerel is the most satisfying staging of this brutally rich and strange Pushkin satire I’ve seen. The secret lies in attention to detail. Each musical thought and gesture is precisely choreographed, and everything springs directly from the score and libretto. A pleasurable performance throughout.

Everything is fresh and funny - the Act 1 vignette between Dodon and his inarticulate pet parrot Coco especially so, thanks to some brilliant puppetry -but the screw tightens relentlessly as the hapless monarch's shocking desptach approaches. The British bass Pavlo Hunka's lumbering, likeable Dodon taps impressive reservices of vocal stamina in a properly dominant perdormance, though Venera Gimadieva's slinky Queen is equally centered: she is no light soprano but passes Rimsky's coloratura examination with aplomb. Given food sound slightly favouring the voices (no defect where text is so vital), pin-sharp visuals and light handed video direction, this is a gloden Cockerel indeed.