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Siobhan Stagg is an outstanding Susanna in a strongly cast and well produced Marriage of Figaro at the Sydney Opera House

The tireless Stefan Vinke wows in the title role of Opera Australia's Siegfried, in a production which harnesses technology to excellent effect.

Monodramas by Francis Poulenc, Kaija Saariaho and Jack Symonds feature in a triple bill on the themes of love, loss and absence. 

Three outstanding debuts and a warm and funny ensemble shine in David McVicar's naturalistic Marriage of Figaro. 

Opera Australia delivers a sensational new Elena Kats-Chernin opera about the immensely gifted and troubled Australian painter, Brett Whiteley.

The problematic nature of Britten's Rape of Lucretia is well-known: Sydney Chamber Opera's production attempts to navigate it via gender inversion. 

Another ancient hit revived and delivered with panache by Sydney-based Pinchgut Opera: Gretry's L'Amant jaloux (1778) proved it still could raise laughs, aided by a superb cast. 

Giasone was the most performed opera of the 17th century, but this was no dry, reverent exhumation. This was something much better from Pinchgut Opera: a joyous, animated resurrection.

For the past ten years, Pinchgut Opera has established a reputation for excellence through mounting one opera production annually in Sydney (the name derives from an island in Sydney’s harbour, established as a prison from the beginnings of settlement). Their focus has hitherto been on lesser-known Baroque works, with a few later 18th-century outliers.