Features

WhatsOnStage Opera Poll 2018

Have your say and vote for your favourite opera people and productions from the last 12 months

Mark Valencia
London London's West End Off-West End

Welcome to the WhatsOnStage Opera Poll 2018.

Eligibility for our shortlist is confined to events that were reviewed for WhatsOnStage between December 2016 and November 2017 inclusive.

Voting will close on 29 December. The results will be announced on these pages on 2 January 2018.

You may enter once only, so be sure to cast your votes at a single visit. (There are only five categories so it won't take long.) Additional voting sessions from the same source will not be registered.

To help nudge your memory, at the foot of this page you will find links to all the relevant WhatsOnStage reviews. Just click on the blue links.

Voting has now closed for the Opera Poll.

Here's what we had to say about the nominees

Best New Opera Production

La Cenerentola (Aletta Collins, Opera North) "You'll be swept along by its wit"

Hansel & Gretel (Edward Dick, Opera North) "Breathtaking and wholly unexpected"

Patience (Liam Steel, English Touring Opera) "Tip-top comedy wrapped in musical splendour"

Der Rosenkavalier (Robert Carsen, The Royal Opera) "Carsen's great strength is his stagecraft"

Sukanya (Suba Das, LPO/The Royal Opera/The Curve) "An irresistibly multicoloured evening"

Turandot (Annabel Arden, Opera North) "A searing account of Puccini's huge and ruthless final opus"

Best Opera Revival

The Barber of Seville (English National Opera) "This time round it gleams like new paint"

From the House of the Dead (Welsh National Opera) "David Pountney finds beauty in despair"

Kat’a Kabanova (Opera Holland Park) "Everyone will have their favourite. This is mine."

Khovanshchina (Welsh National Opera) "Bewildering, thrilling and musically overwhelming"

The Magic Flute (The Royal Opera) "Thomas Guthrie's razor-sharp revival"

Written on Skin (The Royal Opera) "An excuse to be dazzled once more"

Outstanding Achievement in an Operatic Role

Allan Clayton (Hamlet, Glyndebourne) "The tremendous tenor Allan Clayton"

Joyce DiDonato (Semiramide, The Royal Opera)"The stellar Joyce DiDonato"

Rebecca Evans (Der Rosenkavalier, WNO Rodelinda, ENO) "A creamily floated role debut that had it all"

Ermonela Jaho (Madama Butterfly, The Royal Opera) "A selfless, soul-searching artist"

Natalya Romaniw (Jenůfa, Grange Park Opera Eugene Onegin, Welsh National Opera) "One of the performances of the year"

Anna Stéphany (La clemenza di Tito, Glyndebourne) "One of my performances of the year"

Breakthrough Artist in UK Opera

Liparit Avetisyan (tenor: L’elisir d’amore, The Royal Opera) "He walks off with the show"

Suba Das (director: Sukanya, LPO/ Royal Opera/ The Curve) "He does a Simon McBurney-esque job"

Wallis Giunta (mezzo-soprano: La Cenerentola L’Enfant et les sortilèges Trouble in Tahiti, Opera North) "Her house debut is a roaring success"

Tomáš Hanus (music director of WNO: Der Rosenkavalier Khovanshchina From the House of the Dead) "The WNO Orchestra under its brilliant music director"

Polly Leech (mezzo-soprano: Hansel & Gretel, Pop-Up Opera) "A huge talent and a star in the making"

Lisette Oropesa (soprano: Don Pasquale, Glyndebourne Lucia di Lammermoor, The Royal Opera) "Hilarious, endearing and blest with immaculate timing"

Event of the Year / Outstanding Contribution to the UK Operatic Scene

Hamlet at Glyndebourne: a new opera that has garnered acclaim and audiences both at Glyndebourne’s Festival and on tour

The openings of Grange Park Opera and The Grange Festival: terminal strife at one opera company has led to the birth of a second

Opera North's ‘Little Greats’: a season of six one-act operas, with three earning five stars from WhatsOnStage

Sir Antonio Pappano: inspired conducting of five operas (La bohème Madama Butterfly Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg Otello Semiramide) for the Royal Opera

Matthew Rose and Brindley Sherratt: Two great British basses at their peak in brilliantly characterised interpretations of Baron Ochs in Der Rosenkavalier, Rose for the Royal Opera and Sherratt for WNO

Sarah Tynan: the soprano excelled in three productions this year: The Barber of Seville (ENO) Partenope (ENO) Il turco in Italia (Garsington Opera) "I'd defy anyone to name a more complete singing actress than Sarah Tynan"