Performer: Martin Wright

A new production of Vivaldi's Byzantine opera Il Giustino charms Berlin, thanks to René Jacobs' exemplary conducting and a top-level cast led by Christophe Dumaux.

Stepping in for Sir Simon Rattle, Marc Minkowski's balanced, lyrical approach to Schumann's oratorio proves successful.

A superb musical foundation under Antonio Pappano forms the basis for a satisfying new Fanciulla del West at the Staatoper in Berlin. 

Part of a new Da-Ponte trilogy, Le nozze di Figaro premieres online at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin

Dressed in white, with an origami swan in his hand, Robert Alagna's Lohengrin is less a Grail knight than an absent-minded daydreamer.

Daniel Barenboim conducts an underwhelming cast in the Staatsoper's new Samson et Dalila, and Argentinian director Damián Szifron's operatic debut is stale and cliché-ridden.