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Albery's production allows the opera to speak for itself, although sluggish pacing in the pit detract from the musical merits of this revival. 

Ildar Abdrazakov and Ain Anger excel in the confrontation of tsar and historian; Kaspar Holten's safe but effective staging focuses on the relentless march of history.

Conductor Kenneth Montgomery shaped a high-energy performance that at times raised the roof and at others was poignant and moving.

A line-up of well-matched vocal soloists and a chorus in top form, along with passionate conducting by Franz Welser-Möst made for a memorable closing concert of this important milestone season.

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.  

Semyon Bychkov turned in a magisterial account of Mussorgsky's rugged score, aided and abetted by some strong vocal performances.

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.

Strauss' penultimate opera is treated to a lavish if superficial staging at the Salzburg Festival, but the real rewards come from the musical performance of this unjustly neglected work.

A very warm concert hall and problems with musical balances worked against what was otherwise a genial reading of this contemplative work.

It took Vienna State Opera almost 90 years to present Leos Janacek's Věc Makropulos, but in Peter Stein's production, it was worth the wait.

Jane Archibald and Ruxandra Donose provide a compelling prologue to Ariadne auf Naxos, while Karita Mattila's majestic performance lights up the opera seria second half.

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

Soprano Regine Hangler and tenor Andreas Schager made their Cleveland debuts in Strauss’s most difficult to cast opera, accompanied by virtuoso playing from the orchestra.

Nina Stemme makes a memorable role debut as Elektra in Vienna in a new production set in a coal-filled basement of a 1910 Viennese town house.

Kriegenburg's staging of Wagner's Ring cycle begins with a visually appealing but intellectually empty Rheingold.

Khovanshchina offers ample opportunity for massive, haunting and grandiose vocal display,  beautifully realized by a remarkable cast led by Ain Anger, Elena Maximova and Ferruccio Furlanetto.

In this second year of Bayreuth's bicentennial Der Ring, Oleg Bryjak shines as an outstanding Alberich. Frank Castorf's production is striking but as yet incomprehensible.

Ariadne auf Naxos is the ideal Viennese opera: an entertainment by Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal that satirises the relationship between composer and patron.

Puccini’s La fanciulla del West, in its new production by Marco Arturo Marelli, features excellent singing from top to bottom, tight orchestral playing, beautiful lighting, and a decisive lack of cowboys, saloons and other “Wild West” clichés. Set in a modern-day mining village in the middle of somewhere vast and gorgeous, the production focuses on the social interplay and struggles of the miners.

A new production of Ariadne auf Naxos is a major draw in itself, but a queue for standing room whose end is on the other side of the opera house is news even in Vienna, especially when the performance is not the première, but the fourth in a run of five and also the one that Franz Welser-Möst left to Jeffrey Tate, who has conducted the piece to positive reviews before.

Die Strauss-Fans jubeln, und das ist gut so: Christian Thielemann und Michael Volle sorgen für einen fast schon zu perfekten Strauss-Abend.

Wenn Christian Thielemann an der Wiener Staatsoper dirigiert, strömt das Stammpublikum – zurecht! – ins Haus wie die Katholiken zur Papstmesse.

In Cyril Testes Inszenierung setzt Camilla Nylund als Salome nicht nur gesanglich zu neuen Höhenflügen an...

Riccardo Chailly und das Concertgebouw Orchester feiern Schönbergs 150. Geburtstag mit einer imposanten Aufführung der Gurre-Lieder.

Ein musikalisch solider Abend mit etwas Degen-Gefuchtel, um eine weitere Verdi-Oper kennenzulernen.

Claus Guths neue Turandot mit psychologischem Tiefgang wird bejubelt, lässt andere aber eher unbefriedigt zurück. Asmik Grigorian und Jonas Kaufmann brillieren in ihren jeweiligen Rollendebüts.

Eine ausgezeichnete Besetzung unter dem Dirigat von Ádám Fischer macht Lust auf die weiteren Ring-Abende.

Mit Richard Wagners Rheingold hat die Bayerische Staatsoper einen soliden Auftakt für den wohl letzten Ring-Zyklus in München unter der Leitung von Kirill Petrenko abgeliefert.

Un tel écrin, pour cette distribution d'exception, semblait finalement être la moindre des choses.

Stephen Gould brilliert bei seinem Rollendebüt an der Wiener Staatsoper mit einem stupenden Peter Grimes.

Pour son premier opéra de sa saison lyrique, l'Opéra de Montpellier a présenté une superbe version de Lohengrin de Wagner. Version de concert d'une grande qualité musicale ! 

René Pape überzeugt bei seinem Rollendebüt an der Wiener Staatsoper als hellstimmiger Boris Godunow.

Turandot, eklektisch: Gustavo Dudamel nuanciertes Dirigat verzaubert.

Bei der Jubiläumsserie der Ariadne auf Naxos an der Wiener Staatsoper will trotz teils starker Gesangsleistungen keine wirkliche Feierstimmung aufkommen.

Chowanschtschina ist ein Gesamtkunstwerk, das an der Wiener Staatsoper nicht mit der Regie, doch mit musikalischen Leistungen besticht.