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Zubin Mehta leads a great cast in a revival of a successful production of Verdi's Falstaff at the Staatsoper in Berlin

Saioa Hernández leads a solid cast in Dresden in a somewhat disappointing new production by David Bösch.

Musically and scenically sumptuous melodrama with a solid cast in Karlsruhe.

A good staging and good acting aren't enough to make up for musical shortcomings of the Bayerische Staatsoper's Norma. 

It’s more than a little surprising that Francesco Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur is first gracing the stage of the Staatsoper in 2014, 112 years after its première.It is, therefore, disappointing that this co-production with Covent Garden is not more successful, despite its many excellent qualities.

Attila, Verdi’s ode to Italy (one of them), made its world première in Venice to huge bursts of patriotic feeling. “You can have the universe, but leave Italy for me!” exclaimed the Roman general Ezio, and the audience erupted. Small wonder: the opera appeared at the height of the Risorgimento, when Italy was in the process of unifying into one state.

Few operas are as specific in time and place as Puccini's Tosca: the date is 17th June, 1800, shortly after the battle of Marengo (in which Napoleon Bonaparte wrested control of Northern Italy from Austria), while each of the three acts is located in a specific landmark in Rome: the church of Sant'Andrea della Valle, the Palazzo Farnese and the Castel Sant'Angelo.

In Tosca there's a real sense of Puccini being at home. Written shortly after La Bohème, when he was right at the height of his powers, Tosca is a story of love, jealousy and political turmoil, taking place in Rome, the same city in which it was premiered.