Performer: Christopher Lowrey

80% less of Shakespeare's text adds up to more intensity in Brett Dean's Hamlet as Neil Armfield's staging is mounted by Opera Australia. 

Terrific music making with a light directorial touch brings mixed results to Monteverdi's 1643 masterpiece. 

Pinchgut Opera presents magnificent music and a timeless ethical debate on faith versus sectarian difference. 

Handel's Rodelinda comes to Göttingen a year after the planned centennial anniversary event, but is worth the wait with respect to musical values led by conductor Laurence Cummings with Anna Dennis in the title role.

Vivaldi's Farnace is reconstructed by Pinchgut Opera in ways which might not do the composer full dramatic justice, but the production and high musical values provide an excellent night of operatic drama. 

A concert performance of Handel's not-quite-an-opera proves a hit on tour in New York.