Performer: Herbert Lippert

Vienna staged the first three-act performance of Lulu with Willy Decker adding to his 2000 production, with excellent singing contributing to its success.

Cardillac has a spooky, sinister fascination that both intrigues and horrifies and which is quite successfully expressed in this striking production by Sven-Eric Bechtolf.

Vienna Staatsoper revived Wagner's Ring Cycle with a splendid orchestral performance of Das Rheingold led by Sir Simon Rattle.

Khovanshchina offers ample opportunity for massive, haunting and grandiose vocal display,  beautifully realized by a remarkable cast led by Ain Anger, Elena Maximova and Ferruccio Furlanetto.

When Richard Strauss first wrote Salome, he was unable to get it performed in his home city of Vienna, so shocking was the material with its heavy eroticism and necrophiliac ending (the première was in Dresden). A century on, times are more permissive, and Salome features in the seasons both of Vienna's Volksoper and of the Staatsoper, where we saw it last night.

Sven-Erich Bechtolfs Inszenierung und das Sängerensemble glänzen bei der Wiederaufnahme am Haus am Ring.