Performer: Walter Fink

Müpa's Ring sees all-round musical excellence for a third night in row, which will be remembered more than the various distracting miscues in the staging.

Hartmut Schörghofer's updated concert staging receives strong singing from everyone and a thrilling orchestral performance.

Budapest's Wagner Festival opens with an excellent Rheingold in a skilful combination of singing, acting and projections.

Sometimes the star performer isn’t one of the big romantic headline roles, or even the baritone villain. In this Siegfried, the performance that left me gasping was Gerhard Siegel’s Mime.

An impressive Die Walküre with a trio of first act singers that would be hard to better. Throughout, clarity of diction is allied to clarity of the orchestral reading. 

This production came together brilliantly to illustrate the story of Das Rheingold. But the star of the show was MüPa’s Béla Bartók Hall, with its extraordinary acoustic.