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OperaUpClose's vision of a dystopian England through Wagner's Flying Dutchman, distilled for chamber forces, receives strong performances from the cast and Manchester Camerata players.

Charles Villiers Stanford's The Travelling Companion is performed at Cadogan Hall by New Sussex Opera. 

It's not easy to imagine a freezing Parisian attic when you're in the middle of the rolling Dorset countryside in a baking summer, but Dorset Opera's excellent production of Puccini's La bohème is atmospheric enough to do so.

Hot on the heels of its Eugene Onegin, full of potential marriages that never reach the altar, Dorset Opera put on an excellent production of an opera with a successful, slick and murderous power couple.

What a thrill it was to experience the recent production of Puccini's powerful opera at The Coliseum. Directed by Catherine Malfitano, herself a great Tosca, and conducted by Edward Gardner the performance gripped the packed auditorium throughout. The large orchestra responded magnificently to the maestro's direction adding considerably to the drama.

Puccini's Tosca is one of the stalwarts of the repertoire, with its soaring music and a showstopping number in each act: the evil Scarpia expounding his wicked plans to the background of the Te Deum, Tosca's Vissi d'arte awakening to the harsh world around her and Cavaradossi's lament on death row E lucevan le stelle in Act III.