Performer: Chiara Amarù

Works of religious stimulus are given outstanding performances under the baton of rising star Nil Venditti.

Despite an early misadventure, Teatro dell'Opera di Roma launches Maurizio Scaparro's staging of Rossini's comic opera with panache. 

Although Karine Deshayes role change from Adalgisa to Norma is a work in progress, Luciano Ganci and Roberto Scandiuzzi shine in a staging charged with mythic symbolism.

The singer-actors of this lively Neapolitan opera are entangled in a farcical plot in the Teatro alla Scala's revival of the genre.

Cavalli's debut at La Scala is a triumph, earning applause that not even a Bohème or a Traviata can sometimes elicit. 

The singing is strong and the stagework slick in Laurent Pelly's rib-tickling, often uproarious production of Le Comte Ory.