I’m not a lover of top-ten lists, but I do like looks back at the calendar year for milestones or memorable moments, for good or ill. Here are a few of mine.

Wagnerian Farewell

The final performances of the long-running Otto Schenk “Ring” cycle at Metropolitan Opera proved how good this beloved production was. During its long run there, dating form the 1980s, this was the production that introduced many Wagner lovers, myself among them, to these great operas. 

Where many contemporary productions of the “Ring” go abstract, as if to emphasize the themes of the operas rather than their humanity, Schenk’s was rooted in a certain reality. A reality that accepted that Rhinemaidens would sing underwater, that a dragon would guard a ring, that the gods walked among us. You know, Wagnerian reality.

For these final performances, Schenk returned to work with the cast and make sure the sets were in working order.

And the Met was lucky to have snared a stirring Brünnhilde, Iréne Theorin, to fill in at the last moment for Christine Brewer. Theorin was singing at the Washington National Opera, and was able to accommodate the Met. She was bold, passionate, moving.

The audiences for these operas, generally devout Wagnerians already, were fervent in their appreciation for Schenk’s accomplishment. At the end of Gotterdammerung, there was a palpable sense of loss among the throngs, not just for the end of civilization as depicted by Wagner, but for the end of the run of a much-loved production.

The Making of a Star, Tenor

The Maltese tenor Joseph Calleja filled in for the vocally challenged Rolando Villazón earlier this year as Nemorino in L’elisir di Amore and wowed the Met audience with the warmth of his tone and his engaging stage presence. His performance of “Una Furtiva Lagrima” brought down the house. The Met liked him so much, it signed him to sing opposite Anna Netrebko for its new production of Les Comtes d’Hoffman, which was to have co-starred Rolando Villazón. Calleja is a wonderful, urgent presence, and his voice, which in his early twenties was lively but a little light, has grown in richness.

As for Villazón, his vocal surgery was successful, and he announced on his website that he will be returning to performing very soon.

The Making of Another Star, Soprano

Danielle de Niese launched her album of Mozart arias at the hip contemporary-music lounge Le Poisson Rouge, and it was a triumph. She came off as both hip and endearing. It didn’t hurt that she’s got movie-star beauty, and a remarkable, agile voice, perfect for Mozart. She quickly won over the crowd of cynical music critics and adulatory music-industry types, and showed great finesse in arranging her program. In addition to Mozart, of course, she included a Cole Porter song, from Kiss Me Kate:  “I Hate Men.” She is a delicious singer.

And she proved a marvelous stage performer not long after this concert she sang Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro with great charm and feeling.

Broadway Psychology

I was as surprised as the next theatergoer when, halfway into a preview performance of Next to Normal, the musical about a bipolar housewife and the effect of her illness on her family, I turned to my companion and said, “Wow. This is actually good.”

You never know.

With lyrics as insightful as they are witty, and music that is pleasant, although it may not be as memorable as its rock orientation might call for, Next To Normal struck a chord with theatergoers. It’s still playing, which says a lot these days, when stars drive ticket sales.

I think audiences were driven as much by word of mouth for its quality as for its subject matter, though surely mental illness affects everyone’s lives. And it was that rare modern musical that was not only about something (rather than commenting on something), it was original, and not based on an old television show or movie.

Off Broadway Winners

Two shows really stuck with me this year. The first was Becky Shaw, from Gina Gionfriddo, a writer-producer for the long-running series Law & Order. This savage comedy about a quartet of men and women in their 30s had great dialogue, a smart reworking of old set-ups (a first date gone horribly wrong) and surprising plot turns, insights into family and friendship, a cynicism that couldn’t mask a humanity for the characters. It was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize for drama and marked the emergence of a marvelous playwright. Not for me the forced whimsy of the overrated Sara Ruhl. Give me the bracing ferocity of Gina Gionfriddo.

The other show was Our Town, in David Cromer’s simple, unforced revival of Thornton Wilder’s classic at the Barrow Street Theater. Performed before a mere 100 people a night, it created, as Wilder wished, his New Hampshire world with few props but a lot of care. And at the end, a fantastic coup de theatre revealed the stinging heart of Wilder’s message, that we forget each other when we are alive, only to miss what we never knew we had when it’s gone. It’s been running to packed houses since February, and earlier this month became the longest-running production of Our Town in history.