Anna hasn't left her apartment since the pandemic. She's delighted in there, especially because she goes on great adventures with her imaginary friend Walter. Eventually, Nina, her best friend, drags her out of the house. Here Anna meets Zack, a germophobe, who runs around in a homemade Covid Hazmat suit. The rest of the movie is a very silly comedy about how two people who don't like getting close to humans, get close to each other.

Rienzi, one of Wagner’s masterpieces, has been a major success at the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse in recent years. For this production, the lyric theatre called upon renowned producer Jorge Lavelli and tenor Torsten Kerl. The Orchestre National du Capitole is conducted by Pinchas Steinberg.

When a fairy king quarrels with his queen over a young changeling, he orders his servant, a mischievous sprite, to play a prank on her with hilarious consequences. Adapting Shakespeare’s classic comedy of confused identities, bewildered lovers and a startling metamorphosis, Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream comprises the composer’s perhaps most atmospheric score. An entrancing orchestration of instrumental colours breathes life into a magic wood setting the scene for a mysterious dream world.

Renée Fleming has matured into one of the finest sopranos around at the moment, a true star with a sparkling personality and a velvet-toned voice that is capable of wringing the finest emotions out of works by Strauss and Tchaikovsky that from a lesser singer could sound rather cold and clinical. I wouldn't have thought her voice would be so well suited to Violetta Valéry in La Traviata, and it does take some getting used to, but I think she at least brings a distinct quality to the role with an emotional heart that isn't always necessarily there when a leading diva uses it primarily as a display for her vocal talents. It's served well also by Antonio Pappano's conducting of the Royal Opera House Orchestra in a traditional, but effective production by Richard Eyre.