Performer: Ainhoa Arteta

After a number of eccentric stagings, Mario Pontiggia's traditional production is a hit in Naples. 

Splendid performances and a Nazi makeover turns Puccini's political tragedy into a visceral experience.

Good overall singing, but the Steinberg's conducting was completely subordinate to the stage directions.

If “all the world’s a jest”, as Sir John Falstaff claims at the end of Verdi’s final operatic masterpiece, then we need players – and directors – with a sense of frivolity. Robert Carsen truly delivers. 

It may have taken Verdi’s bicentennial to bring Falstaff back to the San Francisco Opera, but at last the knight has returned to the company’s stage for the first time in over a decade...