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With Claus Guth directing and Simone Young on the podium, the Staatsoper Unter den Linden's new production of Mussorgsky's Khovanshchina proves that the past isn't really past. 

Its premiere postponed from Festival d'Aix last summer, Barrie Kosky's staging of Rimsky-Korsakov's political satire finally takes place in Lyon. 

Barrie Kosky's makes a limited impact in his debut at Opéra de Paris, apart from an hallucinogenic Polovtsian Dances.

With a stunningly inventive and modern-sounding score, strong acting performances and a staging full of theatrical illusion and coherent in spite of general weirdness, Aix's Fiery Angel impresses.

In Tarkovsky's venerable production, the Mariinsky orchestra and chorus are brilliant – but too brilliant for their soloists, including two replacement Borises for an indisposed Mikhail Petrenko.

Rodion Shchedrin's opera mixes singing, choreography and storytelling to lend a potent sacred and mystic overlay to Nikolai Leskov's folk tale.

Tcherniakov's moving production delves into the psychological rather than revelling in the spectacular. 

Valery Gergiev conducts the Mariinsky Opera in a vocally strong Das Rheingold, a promising beginning to Edinburgh International Festival’s Ring in concert over the coming years.

The role of the outsider struck a chord with Tchaikovsky, whose homosexuality alienated him from society. Stefan Herheim takes that identification as the central idea in his remarkable new production at Dutch National Opera.

Christof Loy’s minimalist staging for Khovanshchina at Dutch National Opera has the advantage of clarifying a reputedly fragmented plot. 

Shchedrin’s opera The Enchanted Wanderer is the complete opposite of shocking and director Alexei Stepanyuk’s staging alongside Valery Gergiev’s command over the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra revealed something of a translucid daydream.

Valery Gergiev conducts a mesmerising account of Wagner's Siegfried in Birmingham

Richly imagined, superbly orchestrated and conducted by Valery Gergiev, this concert performance at the Barbican was an exciting première of Shchedrin's new opera, inspired by Leskov. 

Mikhail Kazakov gives a compelling portrayal of the troubled Tsar Boris, as Gergiev and the Mariinsky provide a great showcase for one of the masterworks of Russian music.

Shostakovich's strange opera was reprised at the Met for the 2013 season and makes for excellent excitement. Somehow, the absurdities of the story, music, and production unite to create an experience that is just absurd enough to work.