Performer: Paula Murrihy

Handel's seldom-performed Hercules becomes the latest oratorio to undergo the Kosky treatment at Komische Oper. 

Dinis Sousa doesn't put a foot wrong as the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique and Monteverdi Choir give a performance of startling virtuosity at the end of a European tour. 

When done as well as this, a "concert staging" is not oxymoronic, but a precise term for a valuable mode of presentation.

The five female voices in the opera's main roles complement each other wonderfully in this more-than-concert performance in New York. 

A moving St John Passion from the OAE, with direction shared between Margaret Faultless and tenor Mark Padmore.

Paul Curran's production of Carmen is entertaining and slick, with Paula Murrihy as a feisty heroine.

In this first part of a two part interview, one of the world's most acclaimed opera directors explains his craft: why it starts and ends with the music.