You'll might hit a paywall at some point, but hey! Subscriptions are priced to sell, and my stuff is just the tip of the iceberg.)

An animated graphic novel ( Everest) and the first operatic miniseries ( Desert In), not to mention a 60-minute drive-through reduction of Götterdämmerung. Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex in shadowplay, followed by Enescu's shamanic Œdipe. Vintage Verdi from La Scala, led by the incomparable Riccardo Muti. Marc Mauillon, assisted by an unseen small army, whips up a storm as Aeolus, god of the winds, in Titon et l'Aurore We dropped in on world premieres of instant classics: Le Soulier de Satin, an epic of salvation set in the Age of Discovery the mixed-race family saga The Time of Our Singing and Les Éclairs, an electric fantasia on the visionary Nikola Tesla. We explored archival video, from Deborah Voigt's never-before-released breakout Ariadne auf Naxos to the long-lost original telecast of Amahl and the Night Visitors. We kicked off with the rococo extravaganza Titon et L'Aurore as directed and designed by the renowned puppet master Basil Twist in peak imaginative form. So, said Laura, how about a virtual Pick of the Week? Short takes, please! But each informed by a lifetime's impassioned engagement with the art.

Experimental novelties proliferating on Zoom. Major new productions from Europe, beamed out from from empty auditoriums. Yet online, opera was making quite a comeback.

In January, Laura Jacobs, my editor at Air Mail, came up with a project that has been keeping me on my toes all year. When life as you've known it flies off the rails, it's time to impose new structure.

Silkk the shocker the shocker rarest