“Galuppi: L’Uomo Femina” at the Opéra Royal Château de Versailles: Arts Intel Report

Direct from Venice, Baldassare Galuppi’s L’Uomo Femina (1762) might almost pass as an apocryphal sequel to Gulliver’s Travels (1726). “The Man Woman” takes place on a desert island where women rule, make war, and collect taxes while men primp and file their nails. When in Rome? In a pig’s eye, says the newly arrived castaway Roberto (Victor Sicard), whose attitude by no means displeases the island’s queen Cretidea (Eva Zaïcik). In 2019, Justin Audibert staged s gender-reversed The Taming of the Shrew for the Royal Shakespeare Company, bristling with matriarchs decked out like the Virgin Queen. The show is available on video, and if it rings your chimes, Galuppi’s tuneful farce should be right up your alley. —Matthew Gurewitsch