This one-act farce about a slave girl (Adina, Lisette Oropesa) who reminds the Caliph of Bagdad (Vito Priante) so much of his lost love of many years ago that he wishes to marry her, was presented in the year of the 150th anniversary of Rossini's birth.

This was the first time that the Royal Opera House had performed Billy Budd in over twenty years. Jacques Imbrailo is the title character with Toby Spence as Captain Vere and Brindley Sherratt as the villainous Claggart.

The director of this production of Queen of Spades puts Tchaikovsky himself into the opera, letting him morph into Prince Yeletsky, who loves and loses Lisa. Vladimir Stoyanova sings the prince, with Eva-Marie Westbroek as Lisa and Aleksandr Antonenko as Ghermann, the gambler. Felicity Palmer scored a triumph as the Countess, Lisa's grandmother.

Nina Stemme is Brunnhilde with Stefan Vinke as Siegfried, John Lundgren as the Wanderer, and Gerhard Siegel as Mime in the third installment of the Ring of the Nibelung at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, last fall.