Performer: Lukas Hemleb

A huge revolving grey monolith centre stage dominated a grey floor, grey props and men in grey costumes, all detracting from the gaiety Verdi envisaged as the essence of Falstaff.

Good versus evil, only evil wins. Wagner's Lohengrin fills the Madrid night with questions about what trust is and what it takes to maintain it.

In 2008, conductor Thomas Hengelbrock rediscovered Niobe, Regina di Tebe, written in 1687 by the Venetian-born, German-based composer Agostino Steffani. Although now little remembered, Steffani was a world-famous composer in his day and a man of many talents who became a diplomat and bishop as well as being a musician.