Claus Guth's exciting 2017 staging of Handel’s "Rodelinda" at Madrid’s Teatro Real, featuring Lucy Crowe and Bejun Mehta as Rodelinda and Bertarido, with conductor Ivor Bolton. After the successes of "Giulio Cesare" in 1723 and "Tamerlano" in 1724, Rodelinda completes the trilogy of Handel’s great opera seria masterpieces. The work was composed in 1725 using Nicola Francesco Haym’s libretto, a work inspired by Antonio Salvi’s earlier libretto which had been itself adapted from Pierre Corneille’s tragedy "Pertharite, roi des Lombards". Rodelinda thus brought one of the most glorious compositional periods in the Handel’s career to a close, about a decade after his arrival in the British capital. Mixing romantic storytelling and political intrigue, Handel produced one of his most beautiful scores, a true operatic tour de force.

Glyndebourne's Saul stole the summer and had critics raving. The Guardian (****) applauded virtuoso stagecraft from director Barrie Kosky in his debut production there, calling the show a theatrical and musical feast of energetic choruses, surreal choreography and gorgeous singing. For The Independent, which ranked it amongst five top classical and opera performances of 2015, there was no praise too high for the cast. The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under Ivor Bolton sparkles from the pit with period panache, and designer Katrin Lea Tag's exuberant costumes (The Times ****) set the Old Testament story in Handel's time, with a witty twinge of the contemporary.

Jean-Pierre Ponnelle’s dramatic production brings ancient Rome to life for this gripping tale of revenge, terror, and attempted murder. Giuseppe Filianoti is the Emperor Tito who chooses Servilia to be his Empress. But when she tells him she is already in love with Annio he decides to wed Vitellia instead. Unaware of the honor about to be bestowed on her, Vitelllia, daughter of the deposed emperor, is determined to seek revenge on Tito and ensnares her lover Sesto in her dark plot. Early music specialist Harry Bicket conducts.

The tale of a quick-witted fox and her escape from confinement for a life in the forest.

The Royal Opera, the Royal Ballet, and director-choreographer Wayne McGregor bring us an interpretation of DIDO AND AENEAS, an opera composed by Henry Purcell, with a libretto by Nahum Tate; based on Book IV of Virgil's Aeneid. We find Dido in her court with her attendants. Dido fears that her love for Aeneas will make her a weak monarch, but her attendants assure her that heroes, too, love....

Jonathan Kent's spectacular production of Purcell's huge semi-opera is joyous, imaginative and witty. Glyndebourne, with its intimate auditorium, provides the perfect setting for the drama which is partly spoken and partly sun. Based on an adaptation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream,