While the Frank Gehry's sets were pleasingly textural and undeniably successful as works of abstract sculpture, it was apparent that director Peter Sellars would have been just as happy without them.

The Aida's new production did not shy away from difficult themes: the staging, directed by Calixto Bieito, pushed the story’s war atrocities and nationalistic pageantry to the fore and gave them an unsettlingly recognisable modern edge;

Ms Karabulut sought to bring unity to the diverse materials of Il Trittico by returning to Puccini’s original inspiration in Dante, but also by interpreting the title of the cycle – the Triptych – in its most painterly sense.

Mr Jurowski’s ability to highlight the Alpensinfonie’s instrumental depictions without overstating them allowed one to appreciate just how successfully Strauss had been able to integrate his pictorial evocations into a clear, cohesive structure.

If the programme was held together by few common threads – save perhaps for the prominent trumpet and the moments of heavy drumming shared by the three works – the quality of the performances yielded an evening of constant delights

With Dinis Sousa conducting and all hints of contentious backstage drama far in the rear-view mirror the audience at Berlin’s Musikfest were able to devote their full attention to a majestic performance of a work that still enjoys nowhere near the stature it deserves

If the Symphony No.7 finale was unreservedly triumphant in tone, it was the emotional ambiguities of the earlier movements – and of Mr Widmann’s songs – that made the evening so captivating

The staging of David Alden dispensed quietly with the maritime setting, situating the action instead within a stylised milieu of early-twentieth-century industrial capitalism.

Director Netia Jones, who was also responsible for the set, costume and video-projection designs, had no difficulty sketching the principal characters with a few well-chosen physical movements but the great strength of her direction lay in her ability to create scenes in which almost all emotional excess had been stripped away.

Among the solid ensemble cast the Odetta of Meechot Marrero and the Lucia of Ángeles Blancas Gulin stood out for the heightened, occasionally frantic passions that they displayed