An uneven yet unforgettable performance, thanks to conductor Jaap van Zweden’s seductive colouring of the score and Jennifer Wilson’s refulgent Isolde.
Dutch National Opera have given themselves and their patrons a smashing 50th birthday present – a production of Der Rosenkavalier that is a winner on all fronts.
Jonathan Dove’s new opera about the foolhardy destruction of nature receives an open-air world première with fiery special effects against an evocative historical backdrop.
A mélange of documentary, Chinese opera and contemporary music does not really bind into a solid whole, but Sichuan opera star Shen Tiemei’s performance is complete musical theatre.
In a ravishing and affectingly sung production, Floris Visser re-imagines the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice as the efforts of a grieving psyche trying to heal its devastating wounds.
In a thoroughly riveting recital at the Concertgebouw, soprano Anna Prohaska probes Ophelia’s psyche through songs from the nineteenth century onwards.
Andrea Marcon leads La Cetra Baroque Orchestra and a group of accomplished soloists in an elegant and sensuous performance of Vivaldi's pastoral opera at the Concertgebouw.
The Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra gives a patrician performance of Verdi’s Macbeth and Scott Hendricks is riveting in Andrea Breth’s claustrophobic exploration of oppression and derangement.
Superlative vocal and instrumental soloists, led by Michael Schade as a vividly intense Evangelist, impress in Bach’s St John Passion at the Concertgebouw.
Talented young soloists and conductor Benjamin Levy's lithe way with Bizet's melodies make for a musically satisfying Pearl Fishers at the Royal Carré in Amsterdam.
Sir Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker thrill a packed Concertgebouw with Lachenmann’s startling Tableau, for orchestra and a grand and terrifying Mahler Second.
Mariss Jansons’ reading of Strauss’ Der Bürger als Edelmann is devoid of parody, while his Mahler Fourth is a glimpse of heaven in shimmering watercolours.
