Performer: Jukka Rasilainen

For any opera house, the production of a new Wagner Ring cycle is a huge undertaking and becomes a mission statement. For Finnish National Opera, its mission is to stage an all-Finnish Ring.

In an unusually convincing concert performance, Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Finnish National Opera emphasised the lyrical aspects of Wagner's Das Rheingold.

Hans Neuenfels' setting of Lohengrin as scientific experiment with a chorus of rats affords thought-provoking pleasures, with star turns from Klaus Florian Vogt in the title role and Petra Lang as Ortrud.