Performer: Sian Sharp

Eugene Onegin returns to the Sydney Opera house in Kasper Holten’s slightly awkward production but the singing and orchestral playing are exemplary. 

Nicole Car makes her role debut as Dvořák's Rusalka in a production by Sarah Giles that proves a winner. 

Yaron Lifschitz mesmerises from the opening tableaux’s row of candles in his Purcell staging for Opera Australia, featuring Circa, a Brisbane-based circus company.