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Mahler's Eighth was the composer’s “gift to the nation”; Dudamel’s performance was a gift to Los Angeles. 

Carsen's scaled-down Ring makes a timely comeback with a melancholy message of decay.

Robert Carsen's Eugene Onegin was binned by the Met but works wonderfully in its revival by the Canadian Opera Company COC with high class singing and acting from a young, engaging cast.

In Jetske Mijnssen’s new production of Idomeneo, all order of human entanglements, sorrows and pain run rampant.

Adès opera resists explanation, and the ambiguity of the story drives much of its compelling nature. 

Peter Sellars's much-travelled staging of Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex provided a powerful opening for the 15th Baltic Sea Festival under the festival's artistic director Esa-Pekka Salonen.

Olivier Tambosi’s controversial production of Janáček's Jenůfa first appeared at the Met in 2003.

Searing performances from a mixed cast, superb choir and orchestra; all brilliantly conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen.

Though certainly not the most heartwarming of tales this Christmas season, this is a production one shouldn’t miss.

Silent Night by Kevin Puts closes L'Opéra de Montréal's 2014-2015 season and is notable for revealing a formidable all-Canadian cast of principals.

Julietta, Bohuslav Martinů’s seldom performed surrealistic opera of dreams and lost identity recently premiered in a new Zurich production.

Two worlds occupied by the same two women and presented, jarringly, as a single multi-story set. One is the pristine white deck of a 1960s ship bound for Brazil, and beneath it, where the hull might be, is the grey grim world of Auschwitz.

Alceste is the short and sombre story of a wife who gives her life to save that of her husband, King Admète of Thessaly, a deed which ultimately convinces the gods to reprieve both of them. Gluck, hoping to avoid the over-decorated vocal style then in vogue, set this plot to unadorned vocal lines to give depth to the underlying emotions.

Read our review of Stephen Wadsworth's production of Rodelinda by Handel, in its 2011 HD broadcast from the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

Read our review of John Cox's production of Strauss­' Capriccio in its 2011 broadcast from the Met Opera in New York.

I've commented before about Die Zauberflöte that if you get the music right, the rest will follow. In the first night of the Royal Opera's latest revival of David MacVicar's 2003 production, Sir Colin Davis definitely got the music right.

Read our review of Jürgen Flim's production of Salome in its 2008 broadcast from the Met Opera in New York.