Performer: Dmitri Jurowski

In a score that can be a Technicolor wallow, Jurowski’s sure sense of dramatic pulse and balance, encompassed the brash dance rhythms, religious grandeur, vivid tone painting and the extremes of dissonance.

Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera is rarely performed outside Russia. Sadly, I doubt that Daniel Kramer’s staging for Opera Vlaanderen will win it many new friends.

The performance bids for musical purity, but ends up stripped of story and emotion as well. 

The lack of shock value in Calixto Bieito’s interpretation of Wagner's Tannhäuser premiering at the Vlaamse Opera in Ghent could almost be seen as a disappointment. All the more surprising then was the romantic intimacy created in this superlatively sung production.

American tenor Brian Jagde is the standout in this Tosca, with just those notes of honey and throatiness that seem to wrap up an orchestra’s sound and deliver the whole package to your front door, no signature needed.