Performer: Paul Daniel

A fine singing cast gives creditable performances in Johann Stauss II's most famous operetta, but Paul Curran's updating of Act 2 to 1930s Berlin takes the fizz out of the Champagne.

In a setting that might be The Grange itself, a production which steadily tightens its grip until a blistering finish.

A human waxwork, a lottery win and circus buffoonery combine in a long-neglected Offenbach operetta, given a fizzing performance by the forces of Opera Rara and the London Philharmonic.

Daniel conducts RSNO, with Gerstein at the keys, in warm salute to Prokofiev, Shostakovich, and Rachmaninov.

Of the various themes that make up Britten’s Gloriana, written to celebrate the coronation in 1953 and being given a rare outing at Covent Garden to mark the work’s 60th anniversary and Britten’s 100th, the most effective by far is a sort of operatic expansion of Shakespeare’s line “uneasy lies the head that wears the crown”.