Venue: Gaiety Theatre, Dublin

Salome Jicia delivers a vocally impressive and emotionally committed Norma, but Orpha Phelan’s post-apocalyptic staging fatally weakens Bellini’s sacred tragedy.

Donizetti heads West in Cal McCrystal's riotous, laugh-out-loud L'elisir d’amore, where dazzling singing meets cowboy capers in a gloriously zany production for Irish National Opera. 

Strong vocals from the three principal singers and a sure musical direction from young conductor Farrell help offset some of the less than convincing elements to Olivia Fuchs' production. 

Jack Furness turns Faust into an Oppenheimer-type scientist in a powerful, well-sung staging in Dublin's Gaiety Theatre. 

Polly Graham's take on Mozart's Così fan tutte is full of humour and political commentary, while the singing is a joy to hear. 

Chavaz's post-modern mythological approach to Rossini's neglected opera Guillaume Tell pays off with some glorious singing from the principals and the INO Chorus. 

Tara Erraught stars as the eponymous heroine with Anna Devin as her nemesis Elizabeth I in Donizetti's Maria Stuarda, but Tom Creed's modern update fails to convince at the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin. 

Under director Annabelle Comyn’s modern setting, we have a moving, convincing Fidelio to resonate with our current age.