As we wish everyone a Happy New Year, it is a time to look back at 2025 and celebrate

Musgrave: Mary, Queen of Scots - Heidi Stober & cast in the Act One party scene - English National Opera, 2025 (Photo: Ellie Kurttz)

As we welcome in 2026, we take the opportunity to look back at the year gone by. 2025 saw us doing 500 articles on Planet Hugill from Tony Cooper celebrating New Year in Berlin to Robert J Carreras's final Letter from Florida of 2025 listening to Mahler's Symphony No. 4. In between there were over 60 opera reviews and over 60 concert reviews, with over 30 interviews from composer Steve Daverson on a new work for orchestra and electronics to pianist Julian Chan on recording Leopold Godowsky's Java Suite.

Despite financial vicissitudes, ENO has continued to deliver some strong and imaginative programming. One of our highlights of 2025 was their revival of Thea Musgrave's Mary, Queen of Scots, and the recent stripped-back production of Britten's Albert Herring showed that less could indeed be more. However, seasons are tending to be compressed, and we did not manage Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking due to diary conflicts, alas. But their recent revival of Handel's Partenope showed that classics were on form too.

At Covent Garden, things have been more variable. The revival of Claus Guth's somewhat disappointing production of Janáček's Jenůfa showed what a benefit it could be having Jakub Hrůša in the pit. Katie Mitchell's new production of Janáček's The Makropulos Case benefitted from a strong cast and fine musical performances, but I found the production, Mitchell's operatic swansong, to be fascinating yet distracting and too-complex. 

I am afraid that Oliver Mears' new production of Handel's Semele failed to convince, especially with a disappointing account of the title role from Pretty Yende, and Waterperry Opera's production of Semele showed us how it should be done. Jetske Mijnssen's new production of Handel's Ariodante was just too interventionist for my taste and ultimately the opera failed to move despite fine musical performances. However, Joe Hill-Gibbins' new production of Handel's Giustino in the Linbury showed how problem Handel operas can have emotional depth. It was a delight that Verdi's Les vêpres siciliennes was brought back with a strong cast and fine conductor, we do not see anything like enough French Grand Opera in the UK.

English Touring Opera had a good year, finding form again with a stylish account of Bellini's The Capulets and the Montagues set in the 1950s. Autumn saw them bringing an engaging rom-com energy to Donizetti's comedy to Donizetti's The Elixir of Love, along with a powerful account of Britten's The Rape of Lucretia of which any company could be proud of.

Opera North was also in fine form, and in a remarkably busy year for them we did manage to catch their imaginative reinvention of Handel's Susanna, performed with Phoenix Dance Theatre as a remarkable dance drama, along with a revival of Phyllida Lloyd's 1993 production of Puccini's La Boheme enlivened by a fine young cast. And we were pleased to be able to catch Melly Still's remarkable production of Britten's Peter Grimes at WNO though budget cuts are making the company's touring schedules look worryingly sparse.