Performer: Ivan Ludlow

Given a new production by Evgeny Titov, Benjamin's second full-length opera is musically brilliant, but its examination of our inner darkness lacks heart. 

A superb cast of singers is let down by Christoph Marthaler's cold, stilted staging as Reimann's Lear returns to its birthplace.  

Paula Sides as Donna Anna has an appealing sound throughout her range, a hint of spinto power, and gave the vocal performance of the night.

In Bérénice, given its world première at the Opéra Garnier, composer Michael Jarrell revisits Racine's refined tragedy with the help of the inspired voices of Barbara Hannigan and Bo Skovhus.

Heinz Holliger’s Lunea, which recently premiered at the Zurich Opera House, is “not an opera”, or so the ground-breaking Swiss composer contends.

An ultimately disappointing Fauré Requiem gave way to an outrageously funny performance of Poulenc's comic opera Les mamelles de Tirésias with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Ludovic Morlot.