Performer: Gaynor Keeble

Miskimmon's relocation of the action to Ireland is unsparing in its evocation not of some tearjerking melodrama but of an almost documentary reportage on real events. 

Opera North's revival of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro directed by Jo Davies and conducted by Antony Hermus at Leeds Grand Theatre is still full of comic exuberance.

Every July, Buxton’s charming opera house hosts an international festival of opera, literature and the arts. This year the festival opened with a strong familiar favourite, Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin.

On her house debut, in Covent Garden's second cast of the year, Angel Blue is completely convincing as Verdi's doomed courtesan; Benjamin Bernheim is an unconventional but compelling Alfredo; Simone Piazzola a persuasive Germont père.

ETO's production of Mozart's nuptial comedy, being performed in towns across the country, lacks depth but has some terrific singing with a particularly fine Susanna from Rachel Redmond.

A joyous explosion of tuneful Victorian satire provides an unlikely, yet ideal, contrast to English Touring Opera's Tosca as their Patience tours the UK in this finely-cast, period-perfect production.