Venue: The Theatre in the Woods, West Horsley

Janáček’s satirical opera The Excursions of Mr Brouček may not be among his greatest dramatic works, yet it earns its place in the limelight for its musical, visual and dramatic wit at Grange Park Opera.

Gwyn Hughes Jones, Elizabeth Llewellyn and Sir Simon Keenlyside star in David Alden's setting of Otello in a militarised Cyprus.

No hippos in tutus for The Dance of the Hours, but panto frolics abound in Stephen Madcalf's staging in the idyllic Theatre in the Woods. 

Ivor Bolton and Kit Hesketh-Harvey deliver a brilliant political thriller and anti-Putin polemic – at least for its first half.

First marketed as Ivan the Terrible by Serge Diaghilev, Rimsky-Korsakov's first opera The Maid of Pskov makes a rare appearance outside of Russia, in leafy Surrey. 

Grange Park Opera's revival of its 2015 production of Puccini's La bohème hits some high notes with a very contemporary feel and some excellent singing from its leading ladies.

Conceived for television and first seen on BBC2 in May 1971, Owen Wingrave should lend itself to creative staging and the small screen. Does this new film convince? 

Darkness sits alongside comedy in a new production of Humperdinck's delicious children's opera.