Sam Smith

Therefore, with Alexander Joel’s conducting also being good, there is still much of merit in the evening. It just seems a shame that for a work that only comes to any of London’s major opera houses every ten or twenty years, this has to be the staging on offer.

The run is double, and in some cases triple, cast, and on opening night the conducting of Emmanuel Villaume, who shares the honours over the revival with Ariane Matiakh, was excellent.

The production remains serviceable rather than outstanding. Kaspar Glarner’s costumes are naturalistic, while Boris Kudlička’s sets are designed not to aid the opera’s context (it is set in Cyprus) so much as its drama and emotion.

The evening is conducted superbly by Richard Farnes who achieves the right balance between attaining clarity and conveying a sense of intrigue. The cast is also superb with Mark Padmore as von Aschenbach unleashing his tenor in a role for which it would seem made.

Geoffrey Paterson’s conducting is excellent as it captures the right senses of smoothness on the one hand, and intrigue on the other. The cast is also strong with Nicholas Lester’s Orphée, Sarah Tynan’s Eurydice and Nicky Spence’s Heurtebise all standing out.

In the pit, Leo Hussain achieves an extremely full sound that remains beautifully balanced and thoughtfully paced.

As a result, it places more demands on a director to make the evening colourful, and Damiano Michieletto’s new production for the Royal Opera, which represents a co-production with the Opéra National de Paris and Teatro Massimo di Palermo, does what is necessary through its combination of strong overarching concept and thoughtful touches.

However, one cannot help feeling that such attention to detail disrupts the overall sweep of the drama, with the consequence that this production does not feel as dynamic or humorous as it was probably intended to be.

Overall the standards of singing, playing and dancing are high, but the production as a whole amounts to less than the sum of its parts. No-one can doubt the strength of the dancing, which reveals both McGregor’s natural style of choreography, and how he has cleverly ‘adjusted’ it to make it fit for purpose here.

If the staging is by and large effective, and enables a successful evening to occur, what makes it special is the strength of the music making and overall performances.

Dramatically, Juan Diego Flórez in the title role takes a while to warm up because when initially things do not go his way, this manifests itself too much through anger alone.

Erwin Schrott in the title role reveals a tremendous bass-baritone (the final scene when he is at the front of the stage is particularly impressive), and projects the Don as a large and jovial character on the one hand, and quite a desperate and needful person on the other.

Overall, Laurent Pelly’s 2007 staging for the Royal Opera, now enjoying its fourth revival, achieves a fine balance between bringing out both the piece’s light-hearted and more sober elements.

Reprising the title role from three years ago, Bryn Terfel is an excellent Boris as his firm bass-baritone combines with strong acting to convey a Tsar whose guilt and madness totally overwhelm him.

This is Roberto Alagna’s one hundredth performance for the Royal Opera and he certainly gives everything as he projects his large and warm tenor with style.

Ivor Bolton conducts superbly, while the strong, and primarily British, cast includes several notable performances. Toby Spence is a highly sensitive Captain Vere who when he virtually laughs at the idea that Billy is anything other than high-spirited reveals the real tragedy of the opera.

The London Handel Orchestra, conducted by Laurence Cummings, is on excellent form, while the cast is also outstanding.

Sir Antonio Pappano’s conducting is strong all evening, but particularly so during the Overture, in which he ensures that the tempi, colours and textures constantly alter in line with the multi-faceted nature of the music.

This Così fan tutte still has its share of strengths and weaknesses, but there are undoubtedly many good ideas contained within it.

On her Royal Opera debut, Amanda Majeski is exceptional in the title role as her voice possesses an underlying strength that enables it to achieve quite remarkable things in all registers as she uses it, and her eyes, to highlight the character’s desperation, sense of wonder and affinity with nature.

If, however, the production has always been strong, its sixteenth revival is made truly extraordinary by the quality of the performances. Ermonela Jaho embodies the character of Violetta to an almost superhuman degree, projecting her public persona so effectively that she almost seems conceited, and yet revealing in ‘Sempre libera degg’io’ just how emotionally shattered she feels every time that she hears Alfredo’s voice.

Musically, the evening is strong with Sir Antonio Pappano’s conducting proving extremely astute. It is just a shame that being told that music is tempestuous or dramatic by seeing Tchaikovsky conduct, or sit at the piano playing, it actually makes it feel less so, because it suddenly speaks less naturally to our emotions.

Nevertheless, this will not present any problems to anyone who has not seen it before, the basic strength of the production still shines through in exactly the same way, and the singing is absolutely outstanding.

Now twenty-seven years old, Moshinsky’s production is undoubtedly solid and strong, but it does not always feel that inspiring. Michael Yeargan’s set consists of two rows of colonnades, one open and one closed.

In fact, judged by their overall strength, and the extent to which they sound so secure over what are in many cases such enormous sings, it is hard to picture this line-up of soloists for the opera being bettered.

Once again, conductor Sir Antonio Pappano delivers a beautiful and rousing account of the score, with the few criticisms that might have been levied against the orchestral performance in Das Rheingold not applying at all in the second instalment of the Ring Cycle.

The musical credentials are very strong and, along with the ultimately successful direction, help to make this Das Rheingold feel quite special.

For all of its humour, however, the production does know when to let arias shine in their own right by visually supporting them in subtle ways.

In spite of a few difficulties with a production that is still not perfect, the sheer strength of the cast, combined with Marc Minkowski’s sensitive and astutely observed conducting, make this the best rendering of this Don Giovanni yet.

Outstanding Musical Credentials Create an Enchanting Lohengrin at the Royal Opera House.

If the staging is generally effective, the vocal performances stand as something special.

If the staging might still be classed as a qualified success, the evening’s musical credentials are exceptionally strong with conductor Mark Wigglesworth entirely capturing the essence of, and numerous nuances within, Janáček’s enigmatic score.

To enjoy it one may need to shed all hitherto held ideas regarding what Carmen should say or deliver, but anyone who is able to do so could, like this reviewer, find the staging truly extraordinary.

Dan Ettinger’s conducting elicits a reasonably full, focused and balanced sound from the orchestra, and also helps to ensure that this is a strong revival of one of the Royal Opera’s classic productions.

It is a production that allows the principals to shine by positively inviting multi-faceted performances from them.

It is the overall strength of the cast that makes this revival of Rigoletto quite special, while the smooth conducting of Alexander Joel also contributes to the success of the evening.

Sir Antonio Pappano’s conductingis especially strong revealing texture, delicacy and a beautiful sense of stride, all while delineating the various lines to perfection.

The staging is certainly interesting, but just like the first time around, there is too much detail and it proves immensely distracting.

Julia Jones, who also conducted the 2013 revival, is strong in the pit, achieving lithe, thoughtfully paced and extremely well balanced playing from the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House.

Clément’s production reveals so many details that the subtexts it highlights and ‘sub-plots’ it introduces are enough to ensure we are kept gripped from start to finish. The standout performance comes from Andrey Zhilikhovsky as Dr Malatesta, whose robust baritone combines with a strong ‘all-seeing’ presence.

Lise Davidsen is brilliant in the title role, since she oozes presence.