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Benedikt von Peter's new staging of Bach's St Matthew Passion premieres at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, under Alessandro De Marchi. But despite the good synergy between director and conductor and a first-rate vocal ensemble, the production falls somewhat flat.

A bland staging: at the end what really emerged was Rossini’s glorious music, its intelligent construction and perfect beauty.

A clever production enlivens a rare, early opera at the Donizetti Opera Festival. A fantastic cast and a great period orchestra seal a resounding success under the lead of Alessandro De Marchi.

Director Ole Anders Tandberg's production of Monteverdi's Il ritorno d'Ulisse expertly balances the line between irreverent humour and human tragedy.

Despite its failings, La Monnaie turn Gaspare Spontini's 1805 La vestale into a fascinating evening's opera.

Juditha triumphans in a minimalist production at Venice's Teatro La Fenice. 

Laurent Pelly's production of Giulio Cesare is a play of references to antiquity, heroism and myth. However, it does not thrill. 

Institutional violence has been a running theme in Torsten Fischer’s series of Gluck operas at the Theater an der Wien, albeit with a lid kept firmly on the idea of actual conflict.