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Compelling singers carry the day in the Glyndebourne Festival Opera's first staging of Wagner’s swansong. 

John Fulljames directs a new production of Poul Ruders' uncompromising operatic take on Margaret Atwood’s celebrated novel. 

Strong performances from Elīna Garanča, Barbara Hannigan and John Relyea plus innovative stage direction make for a standout production.

A semi-staging of Bartók's tale of doors and brides at the Coliseum is saved from disaster when Jennifer Johnston steps in to sing Judith at very short notice, with the part gamely acted by Crispin Lord.

English National Opera brings back Simon McBurney's theatre of wonders for this Mozart classic. 

The Norwegian soprano scores a major success at Covent Garden in her role debut as Elisabetta, whetting appetites for more Verdi to come. 

Director Federico Tiezzi's production offered an intimate interpretation of the second opera in the Ring cycle.

Martyn Brabbins conducts an excellent ENO orchestra and consistently good ensemble cast as Richard Jones delivers a wealth of narrative detail to introduce Wagner's Ring.

Three major Metropolitan Opera debuts bring excitement and vocal glamour to this revival of Bartlett Sher's Rigoletto production.

A revival for Sir David McVicar's staging from last season, but this time reverting from French to the four-act Italian version, conducted by Carlo Rizzi. 

Making her debut at the Metropolitan Opera, the wife of Met GM Peter Gelb crushes any talk of nepotism at the downbeat. 

Brett Dean’s Hamlet at the Met is a worthy addition to the operatic canon, and the production is a treat. 

The Metropolitan Opera performs the original French version of Don Carlos for the first time with a distinguished ensemble of soloists, but the static production offers no new insights into the depth of Verdi's masterpiece.

For social distancing reasons, the Festival dispensed with a full staging of Wagner's epic love story, allowing singers and orchestra to share the stage in an able compromise.

John Osborn leads a very successful premiere of Peter Konwitschny's new production of Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots in Dresden

New York Philharmonic, under the strong leadership of its incoming music director, demonstrated that they can perform opera as well as symphonies in an impressive performance of Act 1 of Die Walküre.

John Relyea owns the stage as Méphistophélès in Boston Symphony’s Faust. 

A production which did not make a strong impression in Naples, despite a first rate cast. 

The Philadelphia Orchestra presented an exciting and fresh performance of Swan Lake selections and Bluebeard's Castle, led by its energetic music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

Fabio Luisi conducts a solidly cast Guillaume Tell with panache, Rossini's final opera returning to the Metropolitan Opera after a long absence. 

Charles Dutoit and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra are the stars in a demanding programme of Dvořák and Bartók.

Liudmyla Monstyrska and John Relyea turn in strong performances and Plácido Domingo confirms his hallowed status, but Daniele Abbado's direction remains unappealing in this first revival.

A daring, fascinating pairing of two modern operas by Krzysztof Warlikowski in Paris. 

Haydn’s late, lofty achievement has the august quality of a masterwork, coupled with cheerfulness befitting a summer series that ends in the month of August.

A performance of Wagner’s epic Tristan und Isolde, a testimony for all-enduring love, is a welcome event anywhere in the world. 

Amber Wagner sings Elisabeth with a deepened command and an access to a horizon of sound that make it seem as though her throat had found six more inches of release. It’s a phenomenal performance.

American soprano Sondra Radvanovsky is the reason to see Anna Bolena, though the production provides plenty of other reasons to stay. 

67-year-old diva Edita Gruberova presents a devastating portrayal of a desperate mother supported by a strong cast in a stark modern production.

Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas deserves credit for this excellent semi-staged version of Britten's Peter Grimes performed with the San Francisco Symphony at Davies Symphony Hall.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin kept the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra sounding especially lively and cohesive in this revival of Otto Schenk's enchanting production of Rusalka, starring Renée Fleming as the water nymph and Piotr Beczala as her lover.

Robert le diable’s 1831 opening was perhaps the most successful opera première of all time. Meyerbeer was lauded by luminaries like Chopin, Dumas, Balzac and Heinrich Heine, the opera was played in 69 cities in its first two years and spawned an entire genre of French Grand Opera.

The venerable Viennese tradition of airing dirty operatic laundry in public found an unlikely proponent this season in the form of the Theater an der Wien’s mild-mannered director Roland Geyer, who, unhappy with William Friedkin’s production of The Tales of Hoffmann in March, abruptly sacked the American director and announced he would devise a new staging himself a matter of months before the sec

One of the questions this opera poses for any director is how to link the 'tales' of Hoffmann's three lost loves together and knit them satisfactorily into the Prologue and Epilogue.

Read our review of Cesare Lievi's production of Rossini­'s Cenerentola in its 2009 broadcast from the Met Opera in New York.

Read our review of Adrian Noble's production of Macbeth by Verdi, in its 2008 HD broadcast from the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

Read our review of Robert Lepage's production of Berlioz­'s La Damnation de Faust in its 2008 roadcast from the Met Opera in New York.

Read our review of Bartlett Sher's production of Rossini­'s Il Barbiere di Siviglia in its 2007 broadcast from the Met Opera in New York.