Performer: Louise Alder

The Metropolitan Opera revives Otto Schenk’s venerable staging of Strauss’s intimate melodrama. 

Mariame Clément is a popular director at Glyndebourne, and her new production of Figaro shows her trademark approach to hardhitting comedy.

Evgeny Titov's new production is heavy on the jokes and light in substance, but delights anyway thanks to its high-class cast. 

Louise Alder shines as Cleopatra, one of Baroque opera’s greatest creations, in the fourth Glyndebourne revival of Sir David McVicar's much-loved production. 

Take a fine orchestra and an equally fine chorus, together with three contrasting soloists, and for content the greatest story ever: all the ingredients to bring alive Haydn's The Creation.

Turnage’s opera Festen was among the works and musicians honoured at the 2026 RPS Awards, who also include Peter Moore, Elizabeth Alker, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the Kirkaldy Orchestral Society.