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A pleasurable evening of surprises in Marco Arturo Marelli’s Turandot.

The Don is dark and light, the production somewhere in between, with strong singing and musical direction but stodgy staging. 

At 78, Domingo rages against the ravages of time, and – certainly in this production – shows the next generation a thing or two about stagecraft.

Countertenor Lawrence Zazzo is more than at home in the role of Oberon, and possesses a vocal quality ideal for the scheming king of the fairies, simultaneously eerie and seductive.

During the “Salce” and “Ave Maria” in Act Four Bezsmertna turned this to magical effect, thinning out and floating her shimmering soprano into gossamer threads.

Juan Diego Flórez was impressive in his first portrayal of a lovesick soldier/priest in Manon, with Nino Machaidze's accomplished heroine. Andrei Serban's modern and thoughtful production was still fresh and arresting.

The outstanding trio of Nylund, Stemme and Herlitzius soars above a Vienna State Opera Orchestra in thunderous form, led by Christian Thielemann to celebrate the Staatsoper's 150th birthday in style.

A solid cast led by Juan Diego Flórez revives Günther Rennert’s production, which still amuses after more than 400 performances. 

An epic night at the opera with Joyce DiDonato, which will be hard to forget.

Vienna State Opera offered a solid production in which precious little gleamed.

Saint-Saëns' exotic dip into the Bible is given a cool update in Alexandra Liedtke's new production at the Wiener Staatsoper.

Jean-Louis Martinoty’s scenically seductive Don Giovanni comes as a welcome relief from recent Regietheater aberrations. 

The current stage-setting of Arabella at the Wiener Staatsoper proves that “all that’s Glittenberg” is not gold.

Vienna staged the first three-act performance of Lulu with Willy Decker adding to his 2000 production, with excellent singing contributing to its success.

German theatre director Uwe Eric Laufenberg freely incorporates some of Stanley Kubrik’s horror story concepts into his Elektra, but in ignoring both Sophocles and Strauss, is a long way from shining.  

The Wiener Staatsoper revives a beautiful production of Daphne that juxtaposes myth, dream and reality, with brilliant vocal performances by the two leads.

High intensity girl power for a complex task: Simone Young shines in the pit, Karoline Gruber’s staging convinces with expertise and attention to detail.

Gun-Brit Barkmin’s Salome was neither sexy, salacious, psycho-erotic nor particularly well sung.

Stefan Vinke was a convincing, petulant, pouty Siegfried in the third episode in Wagner's Ring cycle in Vienna.

Sven-Eric Bechtolf’s minimalist staging brought the protagonists’ complicated psychological interaction into focus but to the detriment of Wagner’s myth and magic.

A festive air was palpable – the house was technically sold out – as the first of a set of three Ring cycles launched at the Wiener Staatsoper. 

In 2010, the première of Reimann's Medea was welcomed with enthusiasm, leading the Staatsoper to relaunch it this season for a second run.

Sir David McVicar's production of Tristan und Isolde premiered at the Wiener Staatsoper in 2013, and was then recognized as a friendly platform for singers. Here it is freshly revived with a new cast.

Vienna stages an all-star new production of Verdi's classic, with sublime singing in Daniele Abbado's Spanish Civil War setting.

Die tote Stadt at the Vienna State Opera features strong playing and singing but little drama.

The Staatsoper's new Falstaff is a production that is attractive not only visually, but also in terms of the varied musical color.

Kristine Opolais may not pass so easily for an oriental 15 year old, but her Cio-Cio San deftly avoids Titipu stereotypes.

Vienna State Opera's traditional production of Carmen managed to create an evening of both sumptious music and exciting drama on stage.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s impressive conducting, Tomasz Konieczny’s tortured Telramund and the Chor der Wiener Staatsoper save this performance of  Lohengrin from becoming an ignominious swan song.

Too many paparazzi and not enough Puccini in Robert Carsen’s Manon Lescaut in Vienna.

Jürgen Flimm takes so many liberties with Mozart’s La clemenza it should be re-titled “Tito’s Lament”.

Despite Angel Blue and Ryan Speedo Green, this revival of Franco Zeffirelli’s classic production lacked vocal colour.

Young Russian coloratura soprano Maria Nazarova gets the Oscar. 

Carole Wilson’s Herodias almost upstages Lise Lindstrom’s sexy Salome in a fine revival of Boleslaw Barlog's 1972 production in Vienna.

Tchaikovsky’s passionate drama is put into the deep-freeze by chilly stage designs.

Bravo to the Haus am Ring for a bloody good night of music, drama and beauty – an excellent first première of the season.

Cardillac has a spooky, sinister fascination that both intrigues and horrifies and which is quite successfully expressed in this striking production by Sven-Eric Bechtolf.

Within Mozart’s Don Giovanni, the darkest corners of the soul are exposed by music, stirred up by the lying, lecherous exploits of the aristocratic scoundrel, Don Giovanni.

Nina Stemme leads a successful revival of the Schenk production with a brilliant orchestra led by a passionate Ádám Fischer.

The evening clearly belonged to Stephen Gould’s Siegfried and Sir Simon Rattle and Vienna Orchestra.

Shadow puppet serpents and policemen in tutus: Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier's production of Die Zauberflöte is graced with a strong cast. 

Nina Stemmes' glorious Brünnhilde crowns a towering performance of Götterdämmerung at the Vienna State Opera. 

What has made Rossini and his librettist Jacopo Ferretti’s take on Cinderella survive on the opera stage for almost 200 years now is not only the universal archetype of the downtrodden girl who is redeemed by Prince Charming, nor its enchanting music: the absence of fairy-tale symbols like the pumpkin carriage and the glass shoe (barefoot ladies would have been too outrageous a sight on an Italian

When Richard Strauss first wrote Salome, he was unable to get it performed in his home city of Vienna, so shocking was the material with its heavy eroticism and necrophiliac ending (the première was in Dresden). A century on, times are more permissive, and Salome features in the seasons both of Vienna's Volksoper and of the Staatsoper, where we saw it last night.

Stephen Gould und Krassimira Stoyanova triumphieren in einer unaufregenden Wohlfühlinszenierung von Adrian Noble.

Mit Piotr Beczała in der Titelrolle und Linda Watson als Ortrud ist eben auch manchmal das Unperfekte großartig.

Die Welturaufführung ist weder konfrontativ noch bringt sie neue Einsichten: überdrüber und doch irgendwie daneben.

Peter Steins Inszenierung spiegelt gekonnt ein Werk wider, in dem sich musikalische Schlichtheit und üppiger Klang abwechseln.

Zwischen Jonathan Darlington und dem Staatsopernorchester stimmt an diesem Repertoireabend die Chemie.