Performer: Nadja Michael

Mit der Sache Makropulos setzt die bayerische Staatsoper gleich zum Beginn der Münchner Opernfestspiele einen überwältigenden Akzent – dank Nadja Michael.

Despite the black and white palate, this Makropulos Case has plenty of color. Nadja Michael heads the cast with her fiery portrayal of Elina Makropulos, and conductor Mikahil Tatrnikov makes a triumphant San Francisco Opera debut in the pit.

The Met's première of Iolanta and Bluebeard's Castle, delayed by snow, opened with powerful singing and deeply effective staging. Iolanta showcased beautiful singing from the principals, while Bluebeard's Castle showed off brilliant playing by the Met Orchestra.

The inability of human beings to communicate or even empathise, and the monstrous consequences that gap in misunderstanding leads to, is the foundational idea of Die Eroberung von Mexico, and Wolfgang Rihm’s dense and frequently brilliant music.

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Scorned womanhood has no better archetype than Euripides's Medea. And you're unlikely to see a more powerful or affecting Medea than Nadja Michael's performance in Cherubini's opera Médée, in the first production of the new season at La Monnaie in Brussels (De Munt, if you're a Flemish speaker.)Like all good Greek tragedy, we all know the story.