Performer: Mark Stone

Alexander Shelley tackles Schumann’s sprawling Das Paradies und die Peri with conviction, shaping real momentum and drama, even if balance issues and Thomas Moore’s cloying libretto sometimes distract.

Amy Lane’s production of Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette at the COC is eye-catching and enjoyable but doesn’t offer the same level of insight as her Faust last season. 

From the chrysalis of a Broadway play and then to film, David Henry Hwang's M. Butterfly turns full cycle into an opera by composer Huang Ruo. 

The National Symphony Orchestra's nautical theme includes merry Mendelssohn, the spiteful storminess of Britten’s Four Sea Interludes and the yearning of Vaughan Williams' A Sea Symphony. 

 Longborough Festival Opera’s ongoing Ring cycle returns to its fully staged form with a triumphant new Siegfried.