Performer: Elena Moşuc

One might have hoped for a memorable performance of the work for its absolute première at the Carlo Felice. Instead, this was an experience to quickly forget.

In San Carlo's Luisa Miller, top notch performances from Luciano Ganci and Elena Moşuc lead a concert performance which show what a great and underperformed work this is.

On a balmy evening in Milan, there was anticipation in the air as queues stretched way back for a sold out performance of Carmen. But a flat atmosphere soon fell in the auditorium itself, with lacklustre singing and confused staging to blame.

Luisa Miller in Zurich is a finely crafted and intelligent production in which Verdi's music supports a tragic story of bourgeois respectability. 

Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s Ariadne auf Naxos was first performed in 1912, in a production directed by Max Reinhardt. Unlike the version usually seen today, this first Ariadne was a long-winded play-opera-ballet hybrid, incorporating a full production of Molière’s Le bourgeois gentilhomme with dances to incidental music by Strauss followed by the short opera.

Richard Strauss’ outstanding catalogue of operas is part of the staple diet of opera houses around the world. From the musically and dramatically intense scores of Salome and Elektra to the romantically lush, emotional sweepings of Der Rosenkavalier, there is something in his canon for all manner of opera enthusiasts.