Performer: Loïc Félix

Despite Michieletto's visual gloom, the evening is redeemed by Myung-whun Chung’s masterful conducting and a cast that brings conviction to a production that rarely trusts the opera’s own dramatic power.

Diane Paulus' staging is remarkably true to the original while making it feel like the work was written yesterday.

A human waxwork, a lottery win and circus buffoonery combine in a long-neglected Offenbach operetta, given a fizzing performance by the forces of Opera Rara and the London Philharmonic.

With Laurent Pelly directing, a very French evening sees a veritable feat of singing from Stéphanie d'Oustrac in La Voix humaine, followed by riotous surrealism in Les Mamelles de Tirésias.

In the expert hands of both director Warlikowski and conductor Kent Nagano, the sequel to Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti proves to be even darker and more dramatic.

The traditional end of year performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony took on extra significance in this, his 250th anniversary year.