Performer: Stefan Blunier

An unusual but inspired programme of Riisager, Gershwin and Korngold finds a very receptive audience in Singapore. 

A strong, compelling staging – coherent in aesthetic and philosophy, if a little restrained in performance. 

Barrie Kosky, with nods to the surreal and the macabre, plunges us headlong into Hoffmann’s nightmarish world in a terrific new production at the Komische Oper.

Calixto Bieito's production of Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann is astoundingly sung, but suffers from excessive cuts and occasionally odd direction.

Calixto Bieito's The Tales of Hoffmann at the Norwegian National Opera contains some very effective and at times striking moments, but the production turned out something of a disappointment overall.

Bonn is all about Beethoven. His image is everywhere – on one of the first statues built in Germany for a musician in 1845 in the main Munsterplatz by the cathedral, in the tourist office regalia, in directions to the house where he was born in 1770 (now a museum), in the month-long, annual Beethoven Festival, in the 2,000-seat Beethovenhalle, and, most especially, in the orchestra.