Handel: Saul - Glyndebourne Opera (2015) [Blu-ray]

Glyndebourne's Saul stole the summer and had critics raving. The Guardian (****) applauded virtuoso stagecraft from director Barrie Kosky in his debut production there, calling the show a theatrical and musical feast of energetic choruses, surreal choreography and gorgeous singing. For The Independent, which ranked it amongst five top classical and opera performances of 2015, there was no praise too high for the cast. The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under Ivor Bolton sparkles from the pit with period panache, and designer Katrin Lea Tag's exuberant costumes (The Times ****) set the Old Testament story in Handel's time, with a witty twinge of the contemporary.

"Barrie Kosky's first show for the company is a theatrical and musical feast of energetic choruses, surreal choreography and gorgeous singing ... Ivor Bolton conducts the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment with tremendous elan: theatrically and musically, this is one of Glyndebourne's finest shows of recent years." (The Guardian)