Performer: Nicholas Jenkins

Fine soprano performances from Ruth Jenkins-Róbertsson and Victoria Simmonds can't save Ambroise Thomas's inanimate object of a plot. Thank goodness Wagner saved us from more of the same. 

New Sussex Opera's warm-hearted community production of Oberon took on Weber's sprawlingly chaotic final opera - and won. 

After Cavalli’s Ercole Amante in 2009 and Handel’s Deidamia in 2011, De Nederlandse Opera is continuing its exploration of obscure Baroque operas with Gluck’s Armide, until 27 October.I always wondered why Armide was Gluck’s own favourite work.