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.

Opera Holland Park opened their season with a triumphant account of their first Wagner opera, Der fliegende Hollander, though the new production of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor impressed more for its musical values. A welcome revival of Jonathan Dove's Itch really brought out the opera's strengths. The revival of their 2018 production of Verdi's La traviata showed the company in peak form. The season also gave us the chance to hear Scottish Opera forces in John Savournin's disappointing reinvention of Lehar's The Merry Widow, and on sharper form in a double bill pairing G&S Trial by Jury with a new comic opera.

Bliss: The Beatitudes - Elizabeth Watts, Laurence Kilsby,
BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Singers, Sakari Oramo
BBC Proms (Photo: Chris Christodoulou/ BBC)

Disappointingly this year's BBC Proms failed to give us any really large-scale Arvo Pärt, but we did get the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir in fine form. Another Scandinavian strand saw the Danish National Symphony Orchestra celebrating its centenary with Beethoven's 9th Symphony. Thomas Ades' drew together Sibelius and his own music in an intriguing Prom that also included Gabriella Smith's organ concerto [a work that came up in my interview with organist James McVinnie]. There was rarity of a different sort when Bliss's The Beatitudes received a welcome outing.

The Proms highlight this year, for me, has to be Handel's Alexander's Feast in a luxuriantly large-scale account of the Dublin version from Peter Whelan and the Irish Baroque Orchestra. [I was lucky enough to talk at length with Peter Whelan about this work in my recent interview with him]. The sheer scale of the performance of Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk was less convincing though Amanda Majeski's account of the title role was masterly. Glyndebourne's semi-staging of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro was a masterclass in how to make opera work in the Royal Albert Hall.

Wigmore Hall's year almost gave us riches too numerous to mention. Konstantin Krimmel was in outstanding form for Schubert's Birthday, Gwenneth Ann Rand and Simon Lepper made Judith Weir's woman.life.song into something powerfully memorable. Solomon's Knot brought their powerfully communicative style to the 1725 version of Bach's St John Passion whilst the English Concert gave us a satisfying account of the classic 1739 version. Paul Agnew and Les Arts Florissants took us back to the year Bach auditioned for his Leipzig role.

Oboist Olivier Stankiewicz, soprano Lucy Crowe, violinist Maria Włoszczowska and friends captivated in an evening of Bach, Zelenka, Handel, Vivaldi mixing the known and the unknown. Jacqueline Stucker joined David Bates and La Nuova Musica for more well-known Handel. There was Purcell alongside rarer Humfrey and Hall with the Dunedin Consort in intense form, and The English Concert brought real intensity to rarities by Humfrey and Blow alongside more Purcell. Christmas came early with the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin's exploration of Baroque Christmas concertos. But Solomon's Knot brought the year to a close with a daring account of Handel's Israel in Egypt.

At Cadogan Hall we caught a typically eclectic mix. Chelsea Opera Group and Helena Dix made something of a case for Bellini's La Straniera, but the company was on strong form for its 75th anniversary production of Verdi's Macbeth (complete with ballet music). The Mozartists presented La finta giardiniera and a retrospective of opera (and melodrama) in 1775. British Youth Opera showed that a semi-staged Peter Grimes can indeed show that less is more. The Orchestra Révolutionnaire et Romantique and Jacob Lehmann made a rare foray into Rossini including excerpts from Ermione. [And I chatted to Lehmann about the project]. The Tallis Scholars made the earth move. 

Out of London, Buxton returned to Ambroise Thomas' Hamlet after its ground-breaking 1980 production, in a new outing directed by Jack Furness with typical flair. We made our first visit to Longborough to see not Wagner but Rossini in a terrific updating of The Barber of Seville. And we helped Cheltenham Music Festival celebrate its 80th birthday with a concert from Gergely Madaras and BBC Now that explored works performed at the festival.

At Glyndebourne we caught a terrific revival of Damiano Michieletto's overly conceptual production of Janáček's Káťa Kabanová, whilst at Garsington we saw Ruth Knight's imaginative account of Handel's Rodelinda, one of those occasions when fine singing and drama coalesced.

The Grange Festival gave us a stylish account of Verdi's La traviata, and all-singing, all-dancing theatrical delight in Strauss' Die Fledermaus. But it was Bintou Dembélé and Leonardo García-Alarcón's remarkable reinvention of Rameau's Les Indes Galantes that really impressed. It is all-change at the festival as there was a new chief executive in 2023 and now Michael Chance has announced he is standing down, whilst the festival's seasons are starting to look more varied rather than focused on opera. Something that Nevill Holt Festival's startling reinvention has done, too.

Tony Cooper made multiple visits to the Aldeburgh Festival, enjoying the sheer variety on offer and catching Colin Matthews' first foray into opera, A Visit to Friends, [about which I chatted to Colin Matthews and librettist William Boyd earlier this year]

The Oxford International Song Festival proved to be its usual imaginative mix of the traditional and the innovative. We caught part of the Schubert weekend with Thomas Oliemans and Nikola Hillebrand. Oliver Johnston, a singer we have previously caught in opera, proved fearless in Britten, Shostakovich, Elena Langer and Mahler. Rowan Hellier's Baba Yaga combined narrative, dance and song in a striking way, [and I chatted to her about the project earlier this year]. Another discovery was Festival Young Artist, Hugo Brady in an Irish-themed programme. Lotte Betts-Dean and Deirdre Brenner made a powerful case for The Magdalene Songs, a remarkable project to honour the women from the Magdalene [and I chatted to Brenner about the project].

Thomas: Hamlet - Gregory Feldmann - Buxton International Festival (Photo: Genevieve Girling)

Outside the UK, I made my first visit to the Salzburg Festival, taking in performances from Riccardo Muti and Daniel Barenboim alongside Dmitri Tcherniakov's first production of a Baroque opera, Handel's Giulio Cesare, and an enviable cast in Donizetti's Maria Stuarda given a production like a piece of kinetic music theatre, whilst Raphael Pichon successfully reinvented Mozart's Zaide.

Weber's Der Freischütz from Opera Ballet Vlaanderen in Antwerp was frankly a wasted opportunity yet with a fine musical cast. By contrast, Angela Denoke's production of Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann in Oldenburg certainly punched above its weight and used a far more lucid edition of the work than often occurs in the UK. And Tony Cooper enjoyed the revival of Thorliefur Örn Arnarsson's production of Tristan und Isolde in Bayreuth.

Returning to Wexford Festival Opera, it was a pleasure to encounter Verdi's French version of Il trovatore, known as Le trouvere and presented complete with the ballet music. Handel's last Italian opera, Deidamia was an equal rarity making a welcome appearance, whilst there was Zemlinsky and Rossini on a smaller scale. And whilst in Ireland, I caught Peter Whelan and the Irish Baroque Orchestra in peak form in Bach in Dublin.

Baba Yaga: Songs & Dances of Death - Sholto Kynoch, Ana Dordevic, Carola Schwab, Rowan Hellier - Oxford International Song Festival (Photo: TallWall Media)

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Elsewhere on this blog

• 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 - opera review
• 2025 in Concert Reviews: women's voices, Barenboim defying age, rare melodrama, Ukraine at war, Big Baroque, much-delayed Bliss - concert review 
• Letter from Florida: Manfred Honeck conducts Mahler’s 4th with New World Symphony in Miami - concert review
• Carrying the narrative strongly & directly: Solomon's Knot in Handel's Israel in Egypt at Wigmore Hall - concert review
• Well-upholstered & rather different: On Christmas Night from London Choral Sinfonia & Michael Waldron on Orchid Classics - record review
• Christmas Megamix: Brixton Chamber Orchestra's final gig in its Christmas Estates Tour 2025 - concert review
• Letter from Florida: Opera Up-Close - Unveiling the Dramatic Process with Paul Curran at Palm Beach Opera - opera review
• The extreme psychological approach weakened the dramaturgy: Handel's Ariodante returns to Covent Garden - opera review
• Enjoying it for its own sake: there is much we don't know about 17th-century Exeter organist John Lugge but on this new disc William Whitehead leaves us engaged & intrigued - record review
• Home