Performer: Madeleine Pierard

Astonishingly vivid performances from an ensemble cast made it one of the most outstanding of their recent productions, an auspicious sign as de Mallet Burgess takes over the General Directorship of the company.

A fine cast, orchestra and production make English Touring Opera's new production of Verdi's Macbeth a must see. 

Stephen Medcalf directs a coherent staging of Mozart’s opera seria in which Idomeneo’s inner demons are to be battled. 

The fashion for reviving Mozart's teenage operas brings a vocally dazzling production of Lucio Silla to Buxton, nevertheless hampered by the work's own lack of believable drama and some fairly flat staging. 

For the latest revival of Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier's candy-striped production, the Royal Opera serves up the operatic equivalent of stodgy semolina.