Performer: Ludovit Ludha

Director Claus Guth's new production for the Staatsoper Berlin is a bit of a mixed bag but the evening succeeds more on its musical merits, with a splendid ensemble of singers and orchestra conducted by Sir Simon Rattle.

Music Director Ludovic Morlot placed an emphatic Fortissimo ending on an eight-year tenure that has placed the Seattle Symphony on the global map.

A terrific staging of Janáček's opera is successfully revived at the Teatro di San Carlo.

Many scenes could risk to be particularly disturbing,  but their overt brutality appeared functional, to the structure of the drama. A dark, gloomy story as unambiguously told as it should be.

It took Vienna State Opera almost 90 years to present Leos Janacek's Věc Makropulos, but in Peter Stein's production, it was worth the wait.