Performer: Annemarie Woods

The Royal Ballet presents a triple bill of diverse works including one world premiere and one UK premiere. As per usual, the supreme roster of dancers tackles each with aplomb.

Superb Handelian singing and intense character acting light up Handel’s Semele, staged as a stark, uncompromising indictment of the rich and powerful. 

Robert Carsen's new production of Janáček’s The Excursions of Mr Brouček for the Staatsoper Unter den Linden scores a well-deserved success thanks to a stellar – or rather, lunar – conducted by Sir Simon Rattle.

Giacomo Sagripanti’s live wire dynamics and keenly judged tempo choices keep this revival of Verdi's Il trovatore buoyant at Covent Garden. 

Strong performances by chorus, orchestra and the father-daughter pairing of Amartuvshin Enkhbat and Anna Pirozzi make this Covent Garden revival well worth the visit.

Henry Neill gives a devastating performance as Sam in Trouble in Tahiti in The Royal Opera’s Bernstein double bill in the Linbury Theatre.