1. Death in Venice
Millennium Centre, Cardiff; March
The best singing and highest theatrical standards – complete with acrobats – in Benjamin Britten’s uneasy last opera, Welsh National Opera at the top of its game artistically despite incomprehensible financial cuts. Conductor Leo Hussain, director Olivia Fuchs and a first-class cast led by Mark Le Brocq and Roderick Williams.
2. Elektra
Royal Opera House, London; January
Richard Strauss’s opera, a tragedy of family love and hatred, superbly conducted by Antonio Pappano in his final new production as the Royal Opera’s music director, directed by Christof Loy, starring Nina Stemme and Karita Mattila. Violence and tenderness in one, with dazzling orchestral playing.
3. Eugene Onegin
Grand Opera House, Belfast; September
Tiny, ambitious Northern Ireland Opera punching far above its weight in Tchaikovsky’s perfect opera, directed by Cameron Menzies, with Yuriy Yurchuk as Onegin and Mary McCabe as Tatyana. A timeless vision of Russia from the fall of the tsars onwards.
