Performer: David Butt Philip

Carlo Rizzi’s conducting and a strong vocal cast led by Sonya Yoncheva partially make up for Lydia Steier's misdirected staging in the Staatsoper Unter den Linden’s production of Spontini’s opera.

Pelly’s low-level intervention leaves the audience marooned at the end of his new production of Strauss and Hofmannsthal’s operatic divertissement. 

Giving their 27th performance of the oratorio, the London Symphony Chorus excel as angelic angels and demonic demons. 

Presented without staging, Seattle Opera’s concert Daphne places Strauss’ extreme vocal demands and saturated orchestral writing in sharp relief, offering a high-risk encounter with a rarely heard late opera.

Under the baton of Semyon Bychkov, the Czech Philharmonic and a sprawling supporting cast lead listeners up a stairway to heaven. 

Exceptional singing enlivens a flawed production, which takes liberties with the tone and tenor of Beethoven's sole opera.

The British tenor reflects on his time as a Jette Parker Young Artist and the swerve in direction his career has taken since.