During the gold rush in California in 1849, everything was expensive - but human life was cheap. Minnie, living in a world of tough men, has to do all she can to save Dick Johnson from the pursuing sheriff, Jack Rance.

Passion runs deep when Giulio Cesare arrives in Egypt and encounters the beautiful Cleopatra for the first time. In 1724, the German composer Georg Friedrich Händel fashioned a popular opera around this fateful meeting; his brilliant music complementing a strong dramatic storyline.

Director Richard Jones' reading of Dvořak's best-known opera is rugged and human: the water-nymph Rusalka who aspires to become human learns about the dark side of humanity too. Rusalka eventually gains human form, but happiness only lasts for a moment.

This new production of Debussy's only completed opera promises to be a highlight of the coming opera season. 

Finnish author Sofi Oksanen's Purge has earned overwhelming international success as both a novel and play.  Next we will see how this moving story about the painful episodes in Estonian history looks and sounds as an opera.