Performer: Simon Wilding

A standout performance by Alison Langer as Gilda lights up an Opera Holland Park season opener marred by illness. 

Swedish soprano Malin Byström returns to Sir David McVicar's production at Covent Garden, where she is now probably unsurpassed in the role, vocally and histrionically.

Using Jonathan Dove and Graham Vick's distillations of Siegfried and Götterdämmerung, the company concluded its miniature Ring cycle in under five hours, without sacrificing musical or dramatic tension.