Performer: Bradley Smith

Bradley Smith, as Evangelist, and a fine cast of soloists drove this Good Friday account of Bach’s St Matthew Passion from Ex Cathedra in Birmingham.

Bampton’s “mission to rescue unjustly neglected classical period opera” is vindicated once again with a fresh, fun account of the near-lost original source for Rossini's La Cenerentola: Isouard's Cendrillon. 

An intimate setting for the 18th-century work do from hell.

A period-perfect Albert Herring from Francis Matthews for Buxton International Festival takes time to settle into its stride, but provides plenty of laughs along the way. 

A probing, exultant and musically tireless performance from The English COncert.

Does the devil get the best tunes? Nick Shadow steals the show in the Royal Academy's production of The Rake's Progress.