Performer: Matthew Buswell

Any occasion to see Donizetti's first big success is to be welcomed. The Longborough Festival's new production of Anna Bolena gives us a Tudor court in terror of a brutish, Henry VIII as he seeks to supplant Anne Boleyn with Jane Seymour.

Grange Park Opera’s enjoyable new production of Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera looks a little homespun on stage, but has plenty of musical compensations.

British Youth Opera revives a forgotten operatic entertainment from the 1960s with flair and professionalism.

The laughs keep on coming in Liam Steel's glorious 1950s Albert Herring in an English village where pretensions rise as morals decay, while Nick Pritchard shines as our modest eponymous hero.

Jonathan Dove's joyous old-fashioned fairytale, magically realised in a very stylish production including some wonderfully original puppetry, is a fabulous talent showcase from British Youth Opera - and fun for all the family. 

Despite a disappointingly static production, the cast shine in the Royal College of Music's producion of Handel's rarity Arianna in Creta.