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.
4. Pekka Kuusisto and Norwegian Chamber Orchestra: DSCH
Queen Elizabeth Hall, London; July
The Finnish violinist/music director and Oslo’s NCO, performing Shostakovich’s music from memory, turn a concert performance into bewitching, near incredible live theatre.
5. Sinfonia of London/Wilson
Barbican Hall, London; October
Conductor John Wilson and his top-flight, hand-picked musicians generate explosive energy in Rachmaninov’s Symphony No 1 and Shostakovich’s second cello concerto with Sheku Kanneh-Mason. A fantastic blast.
6. Catalyst: National Youth Orchestra and National Youth Brass Band
Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool/Royal Festival Hall, London; April
The combined orchestral and brass forces of some of the country’s finest young players unite in a virtuosic musical adventure.
7. Bluebeard’s Castle
London Coliseum; March
Radical last-minute invention at English National Opera when a singer fell ill on first night: mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnston stepped in as Judith and staff director Crispin Lord walked the part to powerful and mesmerising effect.
8. Yuja x Hockney
Lightroom, King’s Cross, London; September
The star pianist in touching homage to the octogenarian David Hockney’s paintings projected in his show Bigger & Closer: an eye-and-ear opening meeting of new media and old.
9. A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Garsington Opera, Stokenchurch, Bucks/BBC Proms, Royal Albert Hall, London
Young singers joined forces with the Philharmonia Orchestra and a top cast led by Iestyn Davies and Lucy Crowe in Britten’s take on Shakespeare tale of dark enchantment. Conducted by Douglas Boyd, directed by Netia Jones, newly appointed associate director at the Royal Opera.
10. Manchester Camerata: Disruptors
Albert Hall, Manchester; May
Music in the round from a chamber orchestra who play everything from Beethoven to Hacienda classics, and who this year helped launch Greater Manchester as the UK’s first Centre of Excellence for Music and Dementia. Music changes all our lives, but Camerata’s pioneering music cafes go a brave step further.
