Performer: Barna Bartos

Individual performances impress, but conducting and production both prove too meandering in this year’s Wagner Days Tannhäuser.

Attila Mókus's dramatic baritone was scornful at one moment, tender, distressed, vengeful, or broken in mourning at others, vocal signposts in Rigoletto’s descent into the hell of his own making.

Hungarian State Opera revives their mostly period production of Strauss' Arabella with star turns by sopranos Polina Pasztircsák and Laura Topolánszky.