Performer: Alexandrina Pendatchanska

Sir David McVicar's grim and creepy take on Verdi's Macbeth, backed up by brilliant conducting from Speranza Scappucci and a fine performance of the title role by Quinn Kelsey, is the best thing seen at the COC since lockdown.

René Jacobs conducted the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra in an outstanding performance of Mozart's Idomeneo as part of Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival

An opera that pokes fun at opera seria? An opera that features backstage preparations for a show, followed by an opera within an opera? No, it’s not Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos.