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In the Italian version of Verdi's French grand opéra, Emma Dante updates the action from 1282 to the organised crime of the Sicilian Mafia. 

The Italian mezzo-soprano makes her mark as Anne Boleyn's rival in Jetske Mijnssen's production in Naples. 

Michele Mariotti and Johannes Erath lead us into the caverns of Il tabarro and Bluebeard’s Castle with two stories of violence against women 

A mixed bag of performances at Covent Garden, but with an outstanding Butterfly who brings ample rewards to an evening where the emotional temperature eventually soars.    

As Italy moves into a third lockdown, defiant operatic affirmations at the Teatro alla Scala. 

The Gala Mozart Belcanto featured internationally renowned artists who performed a high quality virtuoso concert.

What do you do when your planned season opener bites the dust? Fly in the stars and put on a concert performance of a verismo favourite. 

Maestro Myung-Whun Chung leads an almost all-Italian cast in an impressive performance of Verdi’s most ambiguous masterpiece.

Sir David McVicar's unassuming production fails to engage with the political side of Verdi's masterpiece, despite good conducting by Nicola Luisotti and some good singing by a solid cast. 

A committed cast make this  a beautifully performed ensemble piece in which the tragedy of young love cut short by untimely disease is compellingly put across.

Michael Volle makes his debut as Verdi's not-so-Fat Knight in Mario Martone's new production at the Staatsoper. 

The Met succeeded in casting two strong singers for the difficult lead roles of Puccini's final opera. 

After all the speculation, Jonas Kaufmann made his role debut as Otello at The Royal Opera – an impressive, if not unqualified, success. 

The Marx Brothers famously sent up Verdi's middle period masterpiece in A Night at the Opera and if Bösch doesn't exactly send up Trovatore's corrosive cocktail of infanticide, jealousy and vengeance, he undermines it with his staging.

Livermore turns Norma into a dubious tribute to fantasy B-movies but Gregory Kunde and Karine Deshayes come to the rescue.

Sir Mark Elder conducts the Hallé in a fine account of Verdi's Requiem at the Bridgewater Hall

This is a well-oiled operatic machine, with all of the cogs whirring. Act I's garret crackles and pops in a slick stream of gags both familiar and new.

Visually traditional, this Norma often indulged on the most predictable aspects of Vincenzo Bellini’s opera, unfortunately missing the opportunity of bringing a bigger audience to the theatre and showcasing the vastness of Italian opera. 

Riccardo Chailly kicks off his interim role as Principal Director at La Scala with Turandot, featuring Luciano Berio's ending, a score he knows like the back of his hand. 

Zurich recently brought a new cast to Robert Wilson’s production of Vincenzo Bellini’s Norma, a triumph of the bel canto style.

Andrea De Rosa’s atmospheric production of Simon Boccanegra uses a series of landscapes projected onto a cyclorama to evoke the Gulf of Genoa. 

A modern, simple production of Simon Boccanegra at Dresden's Semperoper, doesn’t interfere with the action.  

If you are going to see Verdi’s I due Foscari, this production is likely the way to do it. Although this production is by no means unflawed, there are several reasons that it is a must-see for opera fans in Vienna.

The Verbier Festival Orchestra is the centrepiece of the festival from which it takes its name. Hundreds of young players hoping to start a professional orchestral career audition each year for the chance to work with big-name conductors, the likes of which this year include Charles Dutoit, Valery Gergiev, Gábor Takács-Nagy, and, for this concert, Gianandrea Noseda.

No surprise to find a Verdi programme at the Proms in his bicentenary year, but what was unusual was the focus on sacred music, given his antipathy towards the church as demonstrated in his more prolific output, his operas.

La Traviata is such a warhorse that we often forget how many issues it raises for presenting a staging that can convince us of what is in the first analysis a quite ludicrous story, despite Verdi's veristic intentions.