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James Conway's production for English Touring Opera returns in a trimmed-down, single-evening guise. 

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

ETO's charactistically clear, simple production conveys Homer's story with clarity, confidence, and charm – and even humour – from a fine cast, making an exciting start to fully-staged opera at Saffron Hall. 

Updating 470BC Abydos to a 1940s RAF base complete with tin hangar and outdoor privy seemed at times more Dad’s Army than a particularly cohesive tale of war and love.

Nicholas McGegan and the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra give new life to a Scarlatti serenata.

A beautiful and much-put-upon princess, a pair of royal lovers who have never met, a scheming mother, and a pirate who is a prince in disguise: Ottone is a feast of ideas, beauty and fun. 

From the insistent, driving opening to the sublime transcendence of the closing chorale, Norrington, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra and James Gilchrist give us a St John Passion to remember.

Agrippina was a force to be reckoned with: the granddaughter, sister, niece, wife and mother of four Roman Emperors (and lover, incestuously, of at least two). As Mary Beard points out in her brilliant programme introduction, “Agrippina was probably the best connected woman that the Roman world ever saw” – and one of the most ruthless.

“... and as Venice in many things surpasses all places else where I have been, so are these Operas the most excellent of all its glorious Vanities.” So wrote the entranced English traveller Richard Bargrave in 1655. These days, however, Venice travels to England in the form of the English Touring Opera’s 2013 autumn season production.

Die überragenden Stimmführungen von Dutilleul und van der Linde küssten sich, Ensemble und meinen musikalischen Glücksnerv.

Difficile à incarner, l'oratorio de Haendel fait l'objet d'une lecture prudente de la part des Nouveaux Caractères et Sébastien d'Hérin, rehaussée par l'engagement d'un excellent quatuor de solistes.

Les Muffatti präsentiert eine selten(e) gelungene Aufführung der Johannespassion bei den Magdeburger Telemann-Festtagen.

6 aus 6: Alle Kantaten überzeugen jeweils mit Betonung der instrumentalen Besonderheit, Strenge, Frische, schreitendem Atem, Klarheit und Festlichkeit.