Performer: Peter Rose

Newly General Music Director Christian Thielemann and Jan Philipp Gloger bring Richard Strauss' Die schweigsame Frau to the Staatsoper Berlin for the first time, but la commedia is hardly stupenda. 

Wotan's predicaments provide Sydney's victory: Chief Conductor Simone Young has her musicians on some of their best form in recent years, with only a few question marks over an excellent concert performance.

This revival of Kratzer’s production forces the audience to confront where personal responsibility starts and stops for acting under a tyrannical regime, while bringing Beethoven’s only opera to life – with a few twists.