Performer: Patrick Bolleire

The Opéra Royal de Wallonie-Liège takes a risk in mounting a new, but traditional production of the more rarely heard French version of Verdi’s Don Carlos and succeeds with a great ensemble of singers. 

It's a big night at the Opéra Bastille for their 350th anniversary season; Oropesa's dazzling coloratura stops the show; Andreas Kriegenburg sets the action interestingly in a Star Trek future.

A (nearly) complete performance of the original French version of Don Carlos forms the centrepiece of Daniele Rustioni's Verdi Festival in Lyon. 

In Lyon, Daniele Rustioni drives through a pulsating reading of Macbeth, Ivo van Hove's imaginative setting not always fully backed by the vocal performances.

Jérémie Rhorer led a turbocharged performance of this rare Spontini opera, which, although it tires with its grandiose hyperbole, contains excerpts that deserve to be heard more often.