Performer: Karl-Heinz Lehner

The Flying Dutchman – or Le Vaisseau fantôme as it is known in French – makes a fleeting appearance at the Grand Théâtre de Provence in a rousing concert performance conducted by the dapper François-Xavier Roth. 

Wagner demands vocal resilience from the large cast of singers in Das Rheingold, but Willy Decker wants strong thigh muscles as well.

Christoph Loy's Oslo production of Wozzeck is a dramatic triumph, with gripping performances from a cast led by Audun Iversen's desperate title character.

Uwe Eric Laufenberg sets his new staging of Wagner's final opera among the persecuted Christians of the contemporary Middle East – but avoids preaching.

Visual references both incongruous and perceptive abound in the third instalment of Bayreuth's musically triumphant Ring cycle.

Bayreuth's controversial Ring returns with a new conductor and a refreshed cast.