Artiste: Christian Hübner

Given the spate of visually distracting, if not irksome productions which seem to blight the opera world these days, there is something to be said for concert performances.

Oper Leipzig's co-production with Bayreuth Festspiele pulls off a delightful take on Wagner's Das Liebesverbot. With excellent vocals, the Gewandhaus Orchestra, and great wit, Wagner's comedy comes highly recommended.

Presenting Das Rheingold and Die Walküre in a single evening is audacious enough. To put on a Ring cycle in a week-end, you have to follow this by doing the same with Siegfried and Götterdämmerung, which requires something even more radical. Opéra de Dijon’s director Laurent Joyeux and dramaturg Stephen Sazio set themselves the task of cutting eight hours of music down to five.

Putting on a Ring cycle is normally considered a major undertaking for any opera company. For a mid-sized provincial opera company, the idea of staging the whole cycle in a weekend seems barely short of insane. But that’s what Opéra de Dijon are doing – Das Rheingold and Die Walküre last night, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung tonight, and it just had to be seen.