Performer: Hamburg Philharmonic

Kent Nagano and the forces of Staatsoper Hamburg launch their new season with a production of Shostakovich's very first opera in which the ears are beguiled but the eyes are not.

From stylised 16th-century dress to a 1970s sitcom ballet, Konwitschny's Staatsoper staging is full of brilliantly inventive touches, splendidly realised in this excellently sung revival. 

Alondra de la Parra and Camille Thomas, together with the Hamburg Philharmonic, refute suggestions that there could be a gender gap in the world of music-making.

Hamburg's revival of a 2015 production is a musical success, but the director's concepts are sometimes too dense to tell a straightforward story.

The 2002 production of Handel’s masterpiece is revived with a solid cast under the baton of Riccardo Minasi.