Performer: Thomas Faulkner

As a hybrid of brilliance and disappointment, this Don Giovanni is in a class of its own.

Oper Frankfurt's revival of Richard Jones's production of Billy Budd with a homegrown cast is a devastating combination of powerful music and searing drama.

Michael Sanderling conducts the Dresden Philharmonic in Beethoven in Cardiff.

Aylin Bozok's modern and minimalist Werther, beautifully realised and superbly acted with the innovative addition of a silent character, is utterly heartbreaking.

The most Scottish of operas, Verdi's Macbeth, makes big demands on its soloists and is packed with choruses, so it was interesting to see how Scottish Opera's production managed with only seven singers and a chamber orchestra.

Mozart’s original The Magic Flute is bizarre enough. The story of a prince and a bird-catcher’s journey to save a princess they’ve never met from a sinister quasi-Freemason who turns out to be alright, it is sufficiently packed full of great songs and good humour to have become an enduring repertory favourite – but that doesn’t mean it makes any sense. It doesn’t, really. It is a daft opera.