Performer: Frances Bourne

In the third concert presentation of Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov in London this season, the Philharmonia's semi-staged attempt, conducted by Jakub Hrůša, was admirable. 

The Chorus of Royal Northern Sinfonia do battle with Beethoven's monumental and challenging choral masterpiece.

The scene in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin where the peasants, weary from gathering in the harvest, sing and dance for the woman who owns the estate (and, for that matter, owns them) is perhaps not the best example of gritty social realism in opera.