Performer: Bénédicte Tauran

A muddled staging of Mozart's Lucio Silla in Kassel was made worse by two sicknesses in the cast (with one role cut entirely as a result). The orchestra and singers still made beautiful music.

Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques perform Alceste, the most recent effort in their almost complete set of Lully's operas. A strong cast and a remarkable chorus complete a successful performance.

Written in 1819 and belonging to the opera seria chapter of Rossini’s career, the florid score of La donna del lago doesn’t so much respond to as resist its unabashedly romantic libretto.