William Hartston

Thirty years after its premiere at Covent Garden, Richard Eyre's production of Verdi's La Traviata still packs great power thanks to a fine performance by Russian soprano Aida Garifullina in the title role.

The Royal Opera House has produced a glorious, all-singing, all-dancing, totally bizarre production of Offenbach's Tales of Hoffman.

An excellent young cast displayed their talents in the latest revival of Gilbert and Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance at the English National Opera.

Transplanting a tale of ancient Egypt to a modern-day military dictatorship is a difficult and rather dubious task, but Robert Carsen's production of Aida gets away with it, showing that power, passion and patriotism have not changed much in four millennia.

Good singing, great acting, magnificent humour and even some surprising dancing all add up to an excellent production of Mozart's Marriage of Figaro.

Danish film Festen inspires a new masterpiece at the Royal Opera House that packs family secrets, abuse and racism into a gripping 90 minutes with no interval.

The new production of Die Walküre at the Royal Opera House is glorious if occasionally eccentric.

Glyndebourne always sets itself impeccably high standards and this year opened its Festival with a superbly faultless and inspiring production of Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia.

Back in 1934, Mozart's Marriage of Figaro was the first opera ever to be staged at Glyndebourne. The current production, by the French director Mariame Clément, is their tenth and apart from a little accident in the last act, the first night showed that it is as enjoyable as ever.

When Damiano Michieletto's production of Kát'a Kabanova was first seen at Glyndebourne in 2021, the Covid pandemic demanded a reduced orchestra and social distancing among the cast. Its current revival displays the opera to far better effect but draws closer attention to less satisfying aspects of Michieletto's production.