Performer: Madeleine Boyd

Salome Jicia delivers a vocally impressive and emotionally committed Norma, but Orpha Phelan’s post-apocalyptic staging fatally weakens Bellini’s sacred tragedy.

Opha Phelan’s staging presents the action as a grand, Freudian social experiment. It’s a risk – but the production is lifted by outstanding performances from the cast and the Academy of Ancient Music.

Superlative singing, hilarious antics and an energetic production make Donizetti's Le Convenience ed inconvenience an exhilarating success. 

Natascha Metherell relocates the action to an Italian film studio of the 1950s, which looks great but brings problems. 

Orpha Phelan has fun staging Félicien David’s opéra comique, moving the action from Kashmir and Samarkand to Leila O’Rourke’s Tea Emporium.

It’s a risky business to describe comic nuance or timing, so please take my word that these qualities were as pitch-perfect as the vocal prowess on display.