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Riddle me this: what is the result of combining Andrei Serban's beloved staging of Turandot with Antonio Pappano's first stage outing of the piece? Answer: a thrilling evening.

Splendid performances by Yonghoon Lee and Karah Son breathe life into Harry Kupfer’s 20-year-old production.

Graeme Murphy's legendary staging of Puccini's final opera remains a vital combination of strong storytelling and visual panache.

This year’s revival of Andreas Homoki's production features excellent principals, choruses, and sublime orchestration under Fabio Luisi’s seasoned baton. The staging takes far fewer accolades.

This revival of the Met's 30-year-old production of Aida had a disappointing debut in the title role but Dolora Zajick's reign as Amneris is still a force of nature.

Petrenko's Puccini is bracingly alert, filled with colour and has a romantic sweep that is utterly transporting.

Towering above all the other meritorious singers in this performance, was the phenomenal Georgian mezzo-soprano Anita Rachvelishvili 

Francesca Zambello’s engaging Aida opened the season at Washington National Opera, eventually getting into its stride. 

Andrea Chénier returns to San Francisco Opera after a long absence, in Sir David McVicar's realistic production. 

Director John Bell's chosen associations for his Carmen with Strindberg's Dance of Death and Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf underlined an emphasis upon the fated couple's joint knowledge that nothing they can do will turn the tsunami that's leading to their deaths.

The Met’s revival of David McVicar’s year-old take on the perennial Verismo twins strikes out emotionally in Cavalleria rusticana but scores high in Pagliacci. Working on the same set by Rae Smith, flanked by the forbidding stone walls of the town church, Cavalleria is dark, dark, dark – the very picture of a poor, unhappy Sicilian hill town.

David McVicar's six-year old production of Il trovatore returns to the Met with a starry cast:a model of clarity and mood compared with the Met’s previous staging.

While the billboard advertisements focussed on the presence of the ‘hit aria “Nessun dorma”’, there was much else to enjoy in this Turandot revival in Sydney: a lively, rich production and a strong cast headed by Lise Lindstrom and Yonghoon Lee.

Great singing from veterans and some visually stunning effects light up the Met's revival of Hytner's 2010 production of Verdi's Don Carlo.

Nothing will make the plot of Il trovatore less ridiculous. But a director who embraces that ridiculousness, plus stellar playing and singing, make for a great show.

The Il trovatore on offer at the Lyric this month would make a fine CD, its vocal strengths to be found equally among the leading foursome, but its weaknesses are visual and dramaturgical, and these are plenty too.

The ROH's revival of Carmen doesn't bring anything new to the opera, but a stellar cast and stylishly traditional production make it a very enjoyable evening.

I’ve never been to a sing-along Sound of Music, but apparently audience etiquette requires pantomime booing of the Nazis. More than a few attendees at the opening night of Opera Australia’s new production of Tosca responded in a similar fashion at the curtain call, and it had nothing to do with a generally excellent performance. For yes, there were Nazis.

Il Trovatore has doggedly survived in opera’s hit charts despite dispensing generous quantities of hair-raising as well as eyebrow-raising content. Verdi’s music is intoxicating, of course, but there is something to this work that makes it accessible beyond reasoning.

Everybody’s favorite bad girl in the world of opera is back again for a spectacular romp of delights, mischief, seduction, and tragic culmination in the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s 2010 revival of its 1999 production of Bizet’s Carmen.

Carlo Rizzi leitet einen genussvollen Abend mit romantischen kleinen Gesten und großen Gefühlen.

Elīna Garanča gibt als Santuzza ein beeindruckend gefühlvolles Wiener Rollendebüt.

Unter der Leitung von Kiril Petrenko überzeugt die Bayerische Staatsoper in der gelungenen Neuinszenierung von Puccinis Il trittico mit meisterlichen Klängen und exzellenter Besetzung.

Proposition étonnante, la programmation des deux oeuvres dans une même soirée fait le pari des contrastes, mais parvient difficilement à se tenir à distance d'un traitement narratif très vertical et moralisateur.

Carlus Padrissas Turandot wirkt auf das Publikum irgendwo zwischen einem psychodelischen Trip und Reizüberflutung und setzt gleichzeitig neue Maßstäbe für innovative Regieopern.

Noch ehe die Lichter der bayerischen Staatsoper komplett erloschen sind, knallt es. Man entwischt dem zur Zeit nicht sehr winterlichen München und findet sich in der Hitze Südspaniens wieder. Klammheimlich hatte sich Dirigent Omer Meir Wellber ans Pult geschlichen und das munter plaudernde Publikum mit der furiosen Ouvertüre zu Carmen regelrecht zusammenzucken lassen.

La Wally au Grand Théâtre de Genève, à l’ombre des Alpes qui tissent la toile de fond.