Artiste: Adrian Powter

This revival of Catherine Malfitano’s excellent 2010 production features some splendid singing from Gwyn Hughes Jones as Cavaradossi – but is let down by some poor diction and varying drama.

Fine soprano performances from Ruth Jenkins-Róbertsson and Victoria Simmonds can't save Ambroise Thomas's inanimate object of a plot. Thank goodness Wagner saved us from more of the same. 

Just as we would often rather come out of a barber's with a haircut reasonably similar to the one with which we walked in, but just a bit smarter and tidier, sometimes it’s nice to see a well-known and much-loved opera done straight, and done well. 

For a long period, Charles Gounod's Faust was one of the most frequently performed operas, its popularity due to a lusciously romantic score which contains a series of showstopping set-piece arias, many of which have found their way into popular culture (to give just one example, the Jewel Song in Act III has a starring role in the Tintin story The Castafiore Emerald).