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Superb Handelian singing and intense character acting light up Handel’s Semele, staged as a stark, uncompromising indictment of the rich and powerful. 

Robert Carsen's new production of Janáček’s The Excursions of Mr Brouček for the Staatsoper Unter den Linden scores a well-deserved success thanks to a stellar – or rather, lunar – conducted by Sir Simon Rattle.

Giacomo Sagripanti’s live wire dynamics and keenly judged tempo choices keep this revival of Verdi's Il trovatore buoyant at Covent Garden. 

Strong performances by chorus, orchestra and the father-daughter pairing of Amartuvshin Enkhbat and Anna Pirozzi make this Covent Garden revival well worth the visit.

Henry Neill gives a devastating performance as Sam in Trouble in Tahiti in The Royal Opera’s Bernstein double bill in the Linbury Theatre. 

Evgeny Titov's new production is heavy on the jokes and light in substance, but delights anyway thanks to its high-class cast. 

Margaret Atwood’s dystopic novel, masterfully adapted for the operatic stage, is strongly performed at ENO and rings even truer today than it did when it was written.

Adele Thomas makes a good case for Semele's operatic credentials in her production which makes effective nods towards Baroque opera’s devotion to spectacle.

Adele Thomas’ Royal Opera staging channels the Marx Brothers in playing it for laughs, but the musical compensations are many under Sir Antonio Pappano.

Robert Carsen's Aida focusses on the brutality of war, with powerful lead performances from Angel Blue, SeokJong Baek and Elīna Garanča, plus strong orchestral colours from Sir Mark Elder.

The integration of an onstage camera shooting live action film is not new, but Jess and Morgs are perfecting the art of adding this extra dimension to live performance.

Ann Yee and Natalie Abrahami give Rusalka an ecological reading, but it's the musical side of things that really takes flight in The Royal Opera's new production.

Oliver Mears' new production of Britten's chamber opera is a visceral reflection on tyranny and sexual violence.

This is an Aida for the 21st century, with many pertinent things to say about oppression.

 Poul Ruders’ The Handmaid’s Tale comes home to English National Opera after 20 years in a powerful new production by Annilese Miskimmon.

The Zurich opera house launches a novel production of Stefan Wirth's new opera in three movements based on the popular 1999 novel by Tracy Chevalier. 

Gianandrea Noseda takes his post as general music director at the Opernhaus Zurich leading a great cast in Adele Thomas' successful new production. 

Deutsche Oper Berlin’s new production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a delightful and whimsical homage to Britten’s masterpiece. The orchestra, soloists and children’s chorus performed with energy and charm under the baton of Donald Runnicles.

Nicola Raab's production doesn't quite provide the bold rethinking it promises, but stylish execution and a fine cast make for an effective modern Traviata. 

Exceptional singing, an auspicious conducting debut and a staging that is both sophisticated and emotionally involving make this production an unequivocal winner.

Hats off to Andreas Homoki, Artistic Director at the Zurich Opera House, for staging a musical around “the chill of ghostly shadows”.

Director Oliver Mears turns Scottish Opera’s Eugene Onegin into a memory play, with fine singing from a strong cast starring Natalya Romaniw as a thrilling Tatyana.  

Apparently, the composer himself was a notorious cheater, we can assume that some of the unsavoury themes of his 1904 opera “Madame Butterfly” were close to the bone.

A fascinating modern production of Cherubini's masterpiece Medea. Lise Davidsen is especially noteworthy while the rest of the cast give luminous performances. 

Oliver Mears' impressively-cast farewell production in Belfast combines gripping drama and exuberant fun in a symbol-packed reading of Don Giovanni. 

Oliver Sears' production of Macbeth comes to Cardiff in a production which offers a great deal musically but doesn't quite coalesce dramatically.