2025 in Opera Reviews: rare Rameau, rarer Handel, the Barber in Benidorm, Iphigenia in Blackheath, Wagner at Holland Park, Mary Queen of Scots returns, & Maria Stuarda as kinetic music theatre

Handel: Deidamia – Nicolò Balducci – Wexford Festival Opera (Photo: Pádraig Grant)

Opera in 2025 featured a genuine rarity in Thea Musgrave’s undeservedly neglecting Mary, Queen of Scots, whilst Mary was also a focus in Salzburg in the guise of Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda in a production that was an astonishing piece of kinetic musical theatre.

Further rarities included Handel’s last Italian opera, Deidamia, in Wexford and Giustino returning to Covent Garden, whilst Opera North turned the oratorio Susanna into a dance drama. There was rare Rameau too, with Les Indes Galantes receiving its first professional UK staging. Waterperry Opera showed that Handel’s Semele could be small-scale but ravishing, whilst at Garsington a more lavish production presented Rodelinda with intelligence and imagination.

Another undeserved rarity is Gluck’s Iphigenia in Tauride which was given a compelling performance from community opera in Blackheath. Still tracking rarities, Buxton Festival returned to Ambroise Thomas’ Hamlet in a stylishly minimal production from Jack Furness.

Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia showed English Touring Opera on strong form, whilst ENO’s first ever production of Albert Herring proved to be stripped back yet lost little of the sense of place. There was Peter Grimes in a new production at WNO, with Nicky Spence in a performance of remarkable intensity, and a semi-staged version from BYO with Mark Le Brocq was one of the most memorable performances of the opera that I have come across.

Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro – Huw Montague Rendall, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment – Glyndebourne at the BBC Proms (Photo: Chris Christodoulou/ BBC)

Equally memorable, Glyndebourne’s semi-staged performance of Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro at the BBC Proms featured a cast mixing youth and experience. A youthful cast provided a witty account of Rossini’s Il barbiere di Sivigla in Longborough’s stylishly engaging 1970s sitcom take on the opera

• Real musical riches: Thea Musgrave’s major operatic statement, Mary, Queen of Scots returns to the UK after an embarrassing period of neglect
• Strong performances from soloists and in the pit at ENO bring out the real musical and dramatic riches of an unfairly neglected opera, though the rather cut-price production does the work few favours
• Powerful new 1980s-set Peter Grimes from Melly Still at Welsh National Opera
• Nicky Spence’s powerful Peter Grimes at the centre of an intense yet theatrical 1980s-set production in a performance of remarkable intensity and sheer communal power
• A Hoffmann to remember: Angela Denoke’s production of Offenbach’s final masterpiece at Oldenburg Staatstheater with Jason Kim
• A production that certainly punched above its weight, Angela Denoke & Vito Cristofaro get so much right, with an ardent Hoffmann from Jason Kim
• A near-perfect triptych: at Opéra Bastille, Paris, Christof Loy conjures atmosphere inspired by film for Puccini’s Il Trittico conducted by Carlo Rizzi
• An excellent evening. Our Paris correspondent enjoys Puccini’s trilogy with Asmik Grigorian in three soprano roles
• Powerful stuff: Opera North concludes its concert staging of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra with an evening filling the Royal Festival Hall with drama
• A finely balanced cast create a very satisfying and compelling performance of one of Verdi’s darkest yet most fascinating dramas, with chorus and orchestra on thrilling form
• Impressive debuts: Opera Holland Park’s Der fliegende Holländer is something of a triumph
• The company’s first venture into Wagner combines the mythic with the personal in a production that filled the auditorium with vivid drama yet had a quiet intensity in the more intimate moments
• A sense of style & stagecraft with some of the best Handel singers around: Rodelinda at Garsington Opera
• With a title role performed with real agency by Lucy Crowe partnered by Tim Mead singing with luminous tone there is plenty to enjoy, complemented by an intelligent and imaginative presentation of some real drama
• A vivid theatricality that a more conventional treatment might have missed: Bintou Dembélé & Leonardo García-Alarcón collaborate on a remarkable reinvention of Rameau’s Les Indes Galantes
• The ballet héroïque as vivid music theatre in a collaboration between period performance and hip-hop-inspired dance at, astonishingly, the work’s first major UK staging
• A moving immediacy and directness: British Youth Opera in Britten’s Peter Grimes with Mark Le Brocq in the title role
• BYO dares Britten’s dramatic masterpiece and creates not only a terrific evening in the theatre, but one of the most memorable performances of the opera that I have come across
• The Barber in Benidorm: Louise Bakker’s 1970s sitcom take on Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia with a terrific cast at Longborough Festival Opera
• It might be described as ‘the British Bayreuth’ but Longborough’s stylishly engaging 1970s take on Rossini’s comic masterpiece radiated both musical style and sheer enjoyment
• Style & substance: Ambroise Thomas’ Hamlet in Buxton is a rewarding musical & dramatic feast with the festival confidently stepping on the shoulders of its previous production
• Buxton’s return to Hamlet does the work proud with a stylishly minimal production from Jack Furness allowing the two astonishing young principals to shine
• An astonishing piece of kinetic musical theatre: Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda at Salzburg Festival, directed by Ulrich Rasche with Lisette Oropesa and Kate Lindsey
• Donizetti’s Bel Canto opera as an abstract combination of music and movement, with intensely committed and commanding performances from the two protagonists
• Ravishing delight: Rebecca Meltzer tells the story of Handel’s Semele with engaging clarity at Waterperry Opera with Hilary Cronin and Michael Lafferty
• A small-scale production with a big heart. Director Rebecca Meltzer tells the story with engaging clarity and benefits from Hilary Cronin charming and delighting in the title role
• The Glyndebourne Prom: Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro with a young cast on superb form
• An economical staging mixed comedy, tragedy and politics, a cast mixing youth and experience, one of the most satisfying performances of the opera I have seen in a long time
• And there was dancing: Wild Arts’ tour of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin concludes at Charterhouse with an immersive performance full of emotional truth
• Small scale but lacking nothing in heart or intensity, this was a performance that really drew you into the characters’ world, led by Timothy Nelson’s sexily disdainful Onegin
• Iphigenia in Blackheath: community opera dares to go where few UK companies do with a compelling account of Gluck’s French tragedy Iphigenia in Tauris
• A sense of classicism and community combine with compelling individual performances to make this account of Gluck’s great, but neglected opera into an engaging and moving evening in the theatre
• Political resonances and sheer poetry: Robin Norton-Hale’s new production of Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia shows English Touring Opera on strong form
• A stripped back production seemed to barely put a foot wrong, bringing out the resonances of the text yet never over-emphasising and providing a strong framework for a terrific ensemble of singers
• There was nothing semi- about the performance: we were drawn into this quirky world for ENO’s first ever production of Britten’s Albert Herring
• A stripped back production that loses little of the sense of place, with an ensemble of strong character singers plus an engaging account of a central character who repaid all our attention
• Not so slight and surprisingly experimental: the Royal Opera and La Nuova Musica bring a touch of 1930s glamour to Handel’s ugly duckling opera, Giustino.
• Covent Garden returns to late Handel with a production of his problematic Giustino that brings out the musical riches along with a surprising emotional depth and a touch of glamour
• Deidamia: a welcome opportunity to catch Handel’s final Italian opera in Wexford, directed and conducted by George Petrou
• A stylish production that combines playful elements with some powerful singing but which lingers a bit too lovely over details, leading to an over-long evening
• Small but perfectly formed: Wexford’s chamber version of Zemlinsky’s Der Zwerg still thrills and moves
• A scaled-down version of Zemlinsky’s drama that retained the work’s intensity and vividly held our attention with a title role who really wrenched the heart
• Let us take a stand together hand in hand: Hans Krasa’s Brundibar from Sarasota Opera
• Robert J Carreras finds that Sarasota Youth Opera’s performance, alongside a prologue designed to introduce the work today, touches in the right places
• From oratorio to remarkable dance drama: Handel’s Susanna from Opera North and Phoenix Dance Theatre
• Handel’s oratorio turned into a remarkable dance drama, integrating opera and movement with a performance of remarkable focused intensity from Anna Dennis in the title role
• Style, engagement and joy: Handel’s Partenope returns to ENO with a terrific young cast
• 1920s Paris-set production returns with director Christopher Alden back at the helm and a team of superb young soloists who sing stylishly and enter into the concept with a will
• A thrilling Lady, compelling Macbeth & powerful last-minute stand-in: Chelsea Opera Group celebrates its 75th anniversary with Verdi’s Macbeth in the full Paris version
• Verdi’s revised Macbeth given in all completeness by a finely theatrical group of soloists, ably supported by chorus and orchestra, celebrating COG’s 75th anniversary

Donizetti: Maria Stuarda – Nino Gotoshia, Lisette Oropesa – Salzburg Festival (Photo: SF/Monika Rittershaus)