Performer: SeokJong Baek

Dutch National Opera’s powerhouse cast and incandescent chorus deliver a musical triumph in Robert Carsen’s Cav/Pag revival, even as its voyeuristic staging leaves bitter ethical questions around gendered violence unresolved.

With Aigul Akhmetshina and Seokjong Baek in the title roles, there are reasons to be optimistic, but The Royal Opera’s revival of Richard Jones’ production is a mixed bag.

In Los Angeles, Gustavo Dudamel conducts Beethoven's Missa solemnis for the first time... and it proves worth the wait. 

Good Butterflys are not that difficult to come by but great ones are very very rare. Ailyn Pérez fits the bill in this revival of Anthony Minghella’s classic staging. 

Andrei Șerban’s 1984 staging of Turandot may the oldest production left in The Royal Opera’s stable, but there's life in the old horse yet. 

Led by Bryn Terfel's Scarpia and Natalya Romaniw's Tosca – not forgetting Aled Hall's scene-stealing Spoletta – this revival of Jonathan Kent's 2006 staging is urgently paced.