Performer: Marina Luxardo

As part of the annual Wagner festival in the Hungarian capital, Peter Seiffert and Allison Oakes star as the doomed lovers.

Questionable identities, clandestine messages, love and money are the stuffs of Gioacchino Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia, revived again in Zurich.

The Comunale had teamed up with Bologna's basketball team Virtus to create a 50%-off ticket deal aimed at drawing new audiences. The subject matter of this opera might not seem the most immediately accessible, but this was playing to capture the imaginations of opera newbies.