Artiste: Marco Guidarini

With a Slovak team at the helm, the National Theater offers a smart, fresh take on a familiar story.

Despite some outstanding choral work, the State Opera's new production of Boito's popular take on the Faust legend falls short of its heavenly aspirations.

Scottish Opera revives Sir David McVicar's Madama Butterfly. It still looks wonderful. The music, players and singers tell the harrowing story magnificently.

What do you get when you have a woman being burnt on the stake and her daughter tosses a baby – the wrong baby – on the pyre? The correct answer is Giuseppe Verdi’s incredible melodrama Il Trovatore.The Canadian Opera Company’s production (borrowed from Opéra de Marseille) eschews melodramatic displays but does provide some thrills.