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.

Saul

Production of the Munich Opera Festival 2017. The plot of Carl Maria von Weber's romantic fairy opera, which premiered at London's Covent Garden in 1826, is quite astonishing: after the fairy king Oberon has fallen out with his wife Titania, it is humans of all people who are supposed to make things right. Titania will only be reconciled if a human couple proves the truthfulness of their love to the death. Oberon's servant Puck already has someone in mind: the crusader Hüon of Bordeaux, who loves the caliph's daughter Rezia.