Verdi: Il trovatore

Set in the shimmering waters of the Bodensee, with the Bavarian Alps as a majestic backdrop, the open-air lake stage at the Bregenz Festival is a marvel in its own right. Every opera production there has to take that as a starting point, but few have risen more powerfully to the challenge than Robert Carsen's 2006 staging of Verdi's blood-and-fire thriller Il Trovatore. A huge industrial labyrinth is the setting here for Verdi's great operatic melodrama – and is almost a character in its own right. But as ever at Bregenz, spectacle goes hand in hand with world-class musical and dramatic values, and Thomas Rösner conducts a high-powered cast.