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This revival of Catherine Malfitano’s excellent 2010 production features some splendid singing from Gwyn Hughes Jones as Cavaradossi – but is let down by some poor diction and varying drama.

Sydney's Indian Summer brightened by Russian themes. 

La Verdi dispatched each of the works with panaché under audience favourite Oleg Caetani. There is plenty of swagger to their playing at present – a Gallic cock with plenty of feathers in its tail.

Director Ole Anders Tandberg's new production of Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District is gloriously sung, but the violent and vulgar production has a tendency to go overboard.

The Royal Opera House revives Jonathan Kent's traditional production, but with a crucial lack of magnetism between hero and heroine, Puccini's taut thriller feels somewhat muzzled.

The Sydney Symphony Orchestra presented a versatile and truly international menu to its audience last week in a thrice-programmed concert titled “Heavenly Schubert” although it was Shostakovich who proved the strongest draw. 

There is not much in common between the symphonies of Schubert and Shostakovich, but tonight La Verdi drew together two more rarely heard examples of these works under a theme of “turning points”.

The première of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées was a roaring success, literally. There was such commotion among the audience that the dancers could hardly hear the music, despite the determined effort of conductor Pierre Monteaux to keep going.

Friday night's concert, entitled Majestic Brahms, was a concert of two very different halves, with Brahms' Second Piano Concerto comprising the first half and Shostakovich's Sixth Symphony the second. The Brahms is a Herculean piece with one of the most challenging solo parts in the repertoire. Lasting approximately fifty minutes, it is a concerto on a symphonic scale.

Anthony Minghella's famous production of Puccini's Madam Butterfly debuted with ENO in 2005, and has been revived several times since at the Coliseum, as well as travelling to the Met in New York and the Lithuanian National Opera. ENO's latest revival confirms the classic status of this version, with a musical account which goes some way to matching the sumptuous and – yes – cinematic visuals.

Ainhoa Arteta, Stuart Neill et Nelson Martinez – un trio de solistes remarquables finement dirigé par Oleg Caetani dans une mise en scène de Marco Gandini.