Performer: Miloš Bulajić

Magisterial playing and conducting underpin an outstanding, engrossing evening of Wagner at the Schiller Theater.

With a light-voiced cast and gentle updating, the Staatsoper's new Manon Lescaut makes a good case for Puccini's difficult breakthrough opera.

Young singers, musicians and designers in this Matrimonio segreto co-produced by the three main opera companies in the Netherlands show that, on the stage and in the pit at least, the future of opera is bright.