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Revolution is not for the fainthearted in Milo Rau’s decolonized production of Mozart's opera seria for Opera Ballet Vlaanderen. 

Though ambitious and occasionally arresting, this revised and expanded take on the Purcell classic suffers from subtraction by addition.

Peter Konwitschny's production strips away much of the religious symbolism, presenting the difference between Jews and Christians as little more than the dyed colour of their hands. 

At its local Antwerp première, David Bösch’s new production of Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s Das Wunder der Heliane makes it the only house ever to have mounted twice.

Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera is rarely performed outside Russia. Sadly, I doubt that Daniel Kramer’s staging for Opera Vlaanderen will win it many new friends.

The unclear ideas and the excessive blackness in Thalheimer’s concept failed to convince, but Stoyanov and Joel’s presentation of Verdi’s score made up for those problems.

Robert Carsen's understated elegance on stage counterbalances Puccini’s highly charged melodrama. 

The lack of shock value in Calixto Bieito’s interpretation of Wagner's Tannhäuser premiering at the Vlaamse Opera in Ghent could almost be seen as a disappointment. All the more surprising then was the romantic intimacy created in this superlatively sung production.