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Purcell's counterpoint is beautifully sung by a young cast to inaugurate England's latest country house opera venue.

Anna Netrebko chews the scenery as Floria Tosca… and there’s a lot of it to get her teeth into in David Livermore’s busy staging in Milan.

Astonishingly vivid performances from an ensemble cast made it one of the most outstanding of their recent productions, an auspicious sign as de Mallet Burgess takes over the General Directorship of the company.

Director Louisa Muller overcomes the problems of opening a ghost story in natural daylight to deliver plenty of operatic chills. 

A title role performance full of depth from Terfel and a barnstorming comic interlude from Tomlinson provide some great moments, but much of this Boris fails to rise above the ordinary.

Michieletto presents an engaging new production where magic and reality reflect each other through a mirror, and humans are exposed in all their vulnerability.

The credits for this new production directed by Olivier Py raised high expectations that were only partially met on opening night.

As the Governess Alison Rose was the ideal suffering soprano, her eyes an imbroglio of psychological disturbances.

Under conductor Thomas Hengelbrock, the Tonhalle Orchester ensemble and 60-voice configuration of the Balthasar Neumann Choir perform the legendary Elijah oratorio at Zurich’s Tonhalle Maag.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s proves the highlight of a frustrating evening at The Metropolitan Opera

Gorgeous playing under Sir Mark Elder wasn’t enough to mask the lack of theatrical drive in the scrupulously cast Dutch premiere of Delius’ most successful opera.

In two equally impressive performances, students from the RNCM star in these two one-act operas.

Nearly a century after his birth, Weinberg's final completed symphony is given its UK premiere by the CBSO and Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla.

The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra mark the Bernstein centenary with a performance of Chichester Psalms in Chichester Cathedral itself. 

Carè, Stundytė and Pursio all shine as singers and actors in an intense, exciting production at the Finnish National Opera.

Petrenko's Puccini is bracingly alert, filled with colour and has a romantic sweep that is utterly transporting.

It's hard to find anything not to admire in a thrillingly strong production of Britten's haunting chamber opera. 

Handel's Athalia is a wonderful English oratorio but this production, while musically wonderful, was marred by a problematic staging with infuriating surtitles.

A twist on the usual Enlightenment path, this is an admirable production, excellently executed.

With a combined age of 161 years, John Copley and Steuart Bedford certainly bring ample experience to Grange Festival's new production of Britten's Albert Herring. 

Calixto Bieito's Tosca, despite an intriguingly modern setting, fails to make sparks fly.

Netia Jones' new production taps into Britten's silvery underworld in a staging dominated by video wizardry which is hypnotically beautiful, but comes at a price.

The loud cheers for the performers were richly deserved, although Jörg Widmann’s imposing but sprawling Babylon was not well-served by the concert format.

Jephtha at the Halle Handel Festival subverts the text, and provides little in the way of dramatic or musical compensation.

After over a century, Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande finally received its Norwegian première in a fascinating production by Barbora Horáková Joly.

Clarity and mounting horror in the orchestra pit, the full truth and ugliness of the human condition onstage. Dutch National Opera’s new production of Wozzeck is stomach-churning for all the right reasons.

Washington National Opera continues its cycle of social justice operas.

In the finale to Der Dreigroschenoper the sinister incantation of "Denn wovon lebt der Mensch?" ("For what does man live?") ran delightfully close to the bone in these plush surroundings

Baroque purists might prefer a more surefire line-up of brilliantly executed arias, but the theatrical framework of Adrian Noble's Alcina production offers a great deal.

Britten's The Turn of the Screw finally makes its debut at La Scala in Kasper Holten's eerie staging. 

Steiner’s reading of the mildly disturbing but generally obsequiously presented story is decidedly edgy, especially considering the opera is staged inside the city church.

A mesmerising Wozzeck, thanks to the trampled dignity of Florian Boesch’s antihero, Asmik Grigorian’s gloriously sung Marie, and a thrillingly savage Netherlands Radio Philharmonic.

An outstanding premiere of Bohuslav Martinů's Juliette at the Schiller Theater in Berlin has a delighted public jumping to their feet with applause.

Teatro Regio celebrates Henze's 90th anniversary of birth bringing on stage for the first time in Turin the fairy tale Pollicino

I can certainly attest that this was the closest I have ever felt to watching a 3-D thriller in Dolby Surround Sound whilst at the opera.

Anyone expecting a wishing well, castle and healthy portion of pomp in Dmitri Tcherniakov’s new production of Pélleas et Mélisande is in for a big surprise.

An impressive display of singing technique isn't enough to make RCM's Ariodante connect with hearts and minds.

Opera Parallele's production of Terence Blanchard's Champion: An Opera in Jazz features great performances but an uneven score and spotty blocking.

Lavish sets and costumes, plus high musical quality, make Tosca at the Vienna State Opera a fine example of grand opera. 

A clumsily directed, poorly sung Tosca at the ROH made for a dispiriting evening. 

A roster of star performers and a sprinkling of maestro magic turn this semi-staged concert into a memorable event. Shame about the big ideas.

As part of the season of Scrooges and Santas, it’s a refreshing reminder of sweet simplicity in a complicated world.  

The laughs keep on coming in Liam Steel's glorious 1950s Albert Herring in an English village where pretensions rise as morals decay, while Nick Pritchard shines as our modest eponymous hero.

Opera Holland Park give us a broad span of human joys and tragedies in an excellently staged and acted rendering of Puccini's Il trittico.

The José “Pepe” Martínez/Leonard Foglia collaborative team returns to explore Mexico’s volatile history, search of one’s self, wrought with emotional strife in this beautifully woven Mariachi opera.

The Royal Danish Opera's new production of Carl Nielsen's first opera Saul og David updates the action to the present-day Middle east and, while well-sung, comes off as overly simplistic.

This exquisite children’s opera, rarely performed in Adelaide, received a welcome return to inspire a new generation of admirers. 

Claus Guth gives the Staatsoper Berlin a Turn of the Screw unlike any other.

Zurich's The Turn of the Screw is a masterful staging of the Benjamin Britten's musical narrative of Henry James' ghost story.