Artiste: Maggio Musicale Fiorentino

The Maggio postpones Pountney’s expected new production of Don Giovanni, presenting Ferrara’s production from Spoleto instead, with a good cast in the hands of Zubin Mehta.

Five highly dissatisfied lead characters find only disastrous or ambiguous outcomes. Yet there are few greater operas than this.

A lively and amusing Barbiere at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, with Daniele Gatti expertly marshalling the talents of Ruzil Gatin, Vasilisa Berzhanskaya, Nicola Alaimo and Fabio Capitanucci in Damiano Michieletto's colourfully minimalist staging.

The Belgrade Philharmonic was one of Zubin Mehta’s first professional conducting engagements as his career was launched in 1958. A welcome guest, he returns to Serbia this summer to take the orchestra on a mini-tour of the Balkans.