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Damiano Michieletto's imaginative take on Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann is lavish fun, with star turns from Jessica Pratt, Iván Ayón Rivas and Marko Mimica.

A touring show on a frugal budget, but Opera Zuid's take on Offenbach's diabolical delights hits the spot in burning temperatures in the Netherlands. 

The new production of Les Contes d’Hoffmann explores the gothic, magical nature of the story, with a solid cast led by Chaslin’s somewhat heavy baton.

Philippe Arlaud’s production for New National Theatre Tokyo may not be in its first youth, but it delivers on all counts. Leonardo Capalbo, Egils Siliņš and Yuka Kobayashi lead an excellent cast.

“Lima darf nicht Österreich werden!” Offenbach's operetta is set in Lima, but really it’s Vienna in director Nikolaus Habjan uproarious production. 

Krisztian Lada's thoughtful production goes to the dark heart of ETA Hoffmann's stories, mixing Offenbach's deceptively cheerful music with staging that is always impactful and sometimes gross.

Laurent Pelly’s new production combines froth and hilarity with a dark, satirical heart; Marc Minkowski and the orchestra seduce us.

A human waxwork, a lottery win and circus buffoonery combine in a long-neglected Offenbach operetta, given a fizzing performance by the forces of Opera Rara and the London Philharmonic.

Laurent Pelly's long-standing production of Offenbach's opéra-fantastique returns to the Deutsche Oper Berlin, under the baton of Emmanuel Villaume.

PTDC really returned in a weeklong residence at City Center and the company looks to be in good overall shape.

Barbara Hannigan conducts the LSO at the Barbican in an eclectic programme full of exuberant flair.

Set in New Orleans during the Jazz Age, this riff on Offenbach's La Périchole captures the festive spirit of the summer, despite some tired jokes.

Audiences return to the Maison de la Radio for Barbara Hannigan and l'Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. 

A fantasy evening in Belle Époque Paris all the way from London's Southbank! 

An exciting, though brief, world premiere and Schubert’s turbulent Fourth Symphony were given impressive readings by the Gürzenich Orchestra under Michael Sanderling, with Raphaela Gromes sensitive and passionate in Schumann.

For the first Lied, we rediscover his velvet and rosewood timbre, so skilled at painting the chiaroscuro of the human soul.

The Russian soprano revived her Day and Night programme for The Met Stars Live in Concert series with a recital from the Spanish Riding School in Vienna.

The Komische Oper's new, socially-distanced Offenbach staging shows plenty of glitzy defiance in its brief appearance before Germany's latest lockdown. 

Glyndebourne welcome audiences back into the house with a one hour Offenbach operetta whose comedy and plot lines are thin but which still delights.

After a few streamed events with chamber forces, the full orchestra and chorus returned to the House – albeit not in their usual positions – for an entertaining fundraising gala.

The Salzburg Festival's production of Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld is another classic in the making from Barrie Kosky.

One of Teatro San Carlo’s most cherished productions of recent years, with an excellent cast of singers and a director who steered at his ease into the libretto’s erratic changes of mood and atmosphere.

A delicious evening which showed off its young talent to best advantage and made us want more Offenbach.

Alondra de la Parra and Camille Thomas, together with the Hamburg Philharmonic, refute suggestions that there could be a gender gap in the world of music-making.

Deutsche Oper Berlin staged an ambitious production by Laurence Pelly with mixed results. The performance included new discoveries and young singers brought fresh energy to the evening.

Netrebko put together a potpourri showcasting her immense vocal gifts as well as her versatility.

Here was singing and playing to live long in the memory.

Tom Creed's take on Offenbach's opéra fantastique works best in the Olympia act in this new production in Dublin. 

Selectively unearthed from current critical editions, this fabulously performed new Hoffmann plumbs the murky depths of its antihero’s psyche.

Stefan Herheim packs puns and gags into a three-hour long show, but less could have been more. 

Oper Köln’s Orpheus in the Underworld proved age accessibility must not sacrifice humour and musical integrity. The tight ensemble piece was superbly acted and well-sung throughout.

“Eat, dance, sing, and afterwards make love” was the motto for Parisian life, and their pursuit made up the greater part of this performance.

Bartlett Sher's production of The Tales of Hoffmann, revived at The Met, takes a Kafka-esque, surreal view of the opera.

Offenbach's vivid setting of ETA Hoffmann's fantastic tales gets an enjoyable outing, with Spyres, Testé and Pudova the undoubted stars of the show.

Prague's National Theater wraps its season with a wickedly funny revival of Offenbach's audacious operetta.

Los Angeles Opera's Tales of Hoffmann survives multiple cast changes to look and sound fabulous, but it drags dramatically.

“Folies Bergère does Greek gods” is how director Martin Duncan describes Offenbach's Orphée aux enfers, and his production for Royal Academy Opera is enormous fun. 

When an enormous black gondola creaks and shudders its way across the stage in the “Giulietta' act of the Royal Opera's Tales of Hoffmann, it acts as a metaphor for John Schlesinger's venerable production.

Hoffmann goes Steampunk: Renaud Doucet’s staging for the Volksoper is the exception to the sensible rule that “less is more”.

The 2016 Proms come to a riotous close at the Royal Albert Hall.

Affable host Richard Gere united a starry musical cast to celebrate Carnegie Hall’s 125th Anniversary Gala.

Le Roi Carrotte, simmered by Laurent Pelly in the cooking pots of the Opéra de Lyon

The National Ballet of Japan mounted a new production of Peter Darrell’s The Tales of Hoffmann based on the Offenbach's opera. Although no masterpiece, it was an enjoyable evening and the quality of dancing by the four primas, the fascinating new sets and the costumes did entertain the audience a lot.

State Opera of South Australia is performing two short pieces, Mozart’s Bastien und Bastienne and the even rarer Offenbach’s La chanson de Fortunio, showcasing several developing young artists.

Barrie Kosky, with nods to the surreal and the macabre, plunges us headlong into Hoffmann’s nightmarish world in a terrific new production at the Komische Oper.

In a somewhat long-overdue debut at the Concertgebouw, bel canto royalty Juan Diego Flórez and rising star Pretty Yende wowed the Amsterdam public with a generous programme of bel canto music.

Great singing and acting from the Met's Tales of Hoffmann second cast. 

The Metropolitan Opera’s five-year old production of Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann returned to the repertoire with a remarkable undertaking of the title role by Vittorio Grigolo.

In an all French language opera progromme, Juan Diego Flórez shines in his Dublin leg of Tour l'Amour