Performer: Sven-Eric Bechtolf

In the tiring role of Menelaus Andreas Schager was a mighty Heldentenor, combining impressive sound power with a dazzling colour and without ever showing a moment of fatigue.

Verdi's fifth opera can be considered a blueprint for Trovatore and deserves a more regular place in the repertoire, but it needs more sincere advocacy than Bechtolf is prepared to grant.

The current stage-setting of Arabella at the Wiener Staatsoper proves that “all that’s Glittenberg” is not gold.

Bechtolf's seductively imaginative staging consists in a flat pack fairytale world full of surprises that delight like the contents of a pop up book.

Stefan Vinke was a convincing, petulant, pouty Siegfried in the third episode in Wagner's Ring cycle in Vienna.

Sven-Eric Bechtolf’s minimalist staging brought the protagonists’ complicated psychological interaction into focus but to the detriment of Wagner’s myth and magic.