Performer: Alberto Sousa

Strong vocal and orchestral performances and a tour-de-force staging of Act II light up Grange Park's production of Verdi's political thriller of the dark days of the Spanish inquisition.

Using Stephen Medcalf’s 2008 staging, this opening night of love and loneliness was a feast for the eyes, a musical triumph and a dramatic tour-de-force that tugged at the heart strings.

Verdi's rarely-performed masterpiece gets an intense, intimate outing with a very fine cast at Fulham Opera.

Stylish, intelligent and visceral, with a magnetic central performance by Claire Rutter, Grange Park give us a powerful, tough La traviata updated to 1950s Hollywood.

With programming in the major opera houses dominated by Verdi and Wagner, bel canto fans have had a slightly thin time of it this year (Covent Garden’s La donna del lago is an exception). But others are filling some of the gaps, with Rossini’s Maometto II coming up at Garsington and Stephen Langridge’s production of Bellini’s I Puritani, which opened at Grange Park last night.

Fulham Opera’s 2012 season is, once again, one dedicated to Puccini and Wagner. Last year, the company brought to stage Puccini’s Suor Angelica – the long-unpopular middle opera of his Il trittico – and the opening work of Wagner’s Ring cycle, Das Rheingold. This season, St.