Christine Rice in Iphigenie en Tauride [Helen Murray]

STILL struggling to cope with a raw deal from the Arts Council and commute between Manchester and London, English National Opera clings on heroically although the result is a roller-coaster ride of hits and misses.

Its current Tosca, playing to Dec 11, is a miss: perversely staged with a robust soprano lead who seems to think she’s in a comedy. But running alongside, to Nov 14, is a luminous production of Gluck’s Iphigenie en Tauride that delivers the piece with all the “noble simplicity” the composer asked for – understated to a fault but elegant and beautifully sung by everyone onstage. Especially Christine Rice, who is so effortlessly commanding in the title role of a priestess being forced to sacrifice her brother that you can’t take eyes or ears away from her. Catch if you possibly can. eno.org

• Something else to catch before it ends is the Hampstead Garden Opera production of Bellini’s La Sonnambula running at Jackson’s Lane, Highgate, to Nov 15. It’s done very basically with young, not always stable voices. And God knows, it’s a silly piece: a vehicle for singing rather than serious drama. But leading one of the dual casts is a British-Malaysian soprano, Eyra Norman, of prodigious talent, clearly on the way to great things. Hearing what she can do now, close-up in modest circumstances, is impressive. hgo.org.uk

• That said, certain voices have a Marmite quality you either love or hate; and an example is countertenor John Holliday, whose glossy sound won’t appeal to everyone although his technique is remarkable. He has a lunchtime concert Nov 13 at Wigmore Hall with crossover repertoire. wigmore-Hall.org.uk

Also at the Wigmore, the burnished mezzo Helen Charlston sings Ravel and Hahn, Nov 16; superstar violinist Joshua Bell plays Bach & Beethoven, Nov 17; and for the very dedicated there’s a whole day of hard-core viola music, Nov 14, with three concerts featuring players like Timothy Ridout. Given the cruel tradition in the music biz of making jokes about violas, it’s tempting to call it a masochists’ love-in. But perish the thought. wigmore-Hall.org.uk

• Somehow, no jokes attach themselves to love-ins for cellos – as happens at the Royal College of Music, Nov 19, led by Raphael Wallfisch and featuring an army of student cellists in arrangements of Rachmaninov, Elgar, Dvorak. Deep listening with a vengeance. rcm.ac.uk

And if you can’t get enough of Raphael Wallfisch (an artist brilliant enough to merit multiple exposures), he’s also at Conway Hall, Nov 15, in recital with pianist Simon Callaghan. conwayhall.org.uk

• If you think high art shouldn’t celebrate bad people, avoid Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea at the Barbican, Nov 17: it’s an opera where the wicked triumph. But they do so to a fabulous score, sung here with Anna Denis and Ed Lyon as the scheming Popea and psychotic Nero. Laurence Cummings conducts the Academy of Ancient Music. barbican.org.uk

• On the choral front, the Pink Singers cheer up St Marylebone Parish Church, Nov 20, with an affirmative programme about love: songinthecity.org – North London Chorus sing Mendelssohn’s Elijah at St James, Muswell Hill: northlondon­chorus.org – And there’s a come and sing Mozart Requiem at Hampstead Parish Church, Nov 14, where you rehearse during the afternoon (under eminent choral director Geoffrey Webber) and do the show straight after. Scores supplied. fom.org.uk