Performer: Nadja Mchantaf

Martin G Berger’s new production of Zar und Zimmermann eases the Deutsche Oper Berlin into the summer break, with mixed results.

The last of Jacques Offenbach's great buffo operettas provides an opportunity for topical satire but Max Hopp’s attempts at updating it fall short of the mark.

The new version of La bohème at the Komische Oper Berlin follows a hard Verismo-beat.

There’s no doubt that Mélisande endeavours to escape past troubles when she first appears in Barrie Kosky’s production of Debussy’s opera, yet Nadja Mchantaf is no reticent, wispy maiden. Every vocal and physical gesture – always precise and penetrating – displays an atypically forthright quest for vitality, something that Arkel’s chauvinistic world does not readily offer.

Tchaikovsky's opera packs a powerful emotional punch in the Komische Oper's concentrated and dreamlike production.