Performer: Cathy-Di Zhang

First class home grown cast in Laura Hansford’s excellent production of for the State Opera of South Australia proves there's still life in this old operatic warhorse.

A rare 17th-century English Baroque spectacular, designed to delight the Restoration crowd, is given a contemporary twist in Sydney. 

Yaron Lifschitz mesmerises from the opening tableaux’s row of candles in his Purcell staging for Opera Australia, featuring Circa, a Brisbane-based circus company. 

Dean Bryant's production of Leonard Bernstein’s operetta leans more towards musical theatre, blending French period costumes with weak attempts at Aussie humour. 

Andrei Kymach and Yuri Kissin deliver standout Australian debuts in a revival of Sir David McVicar's dark, unshrinking Don Giovanni.

Erin Helyard and his cast bring terrifically strong musical values to Charpentier's Médée, but Justin Way's production falters.