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Donald Runnicles leads the Deutsche Oper Berlin in Sasha Waltz's production of Berlioz's dramatic symphony.

Joyce DiDonato, Charles Castronovo and Ludovic Tézier rock the Berlin Philharmonie with Berlioz's "légende dramatique".

A Puccini classic gets the classic treatment in this timeless production at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. 

Puccini's La fanciulla del West gets a modern update at the Deutsche Oper Berlin.

Rolando Villazon's new production of Puccini's La rondine for the Deutsche Oper Berlin charms with 1920s glamour.

The Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, led by Marek Janowski, performs Beethoven's Triple Concerto and Sixth Symphony. 

Michaela Kaune, Albert Pesendorfer, Eun Yee You and Elīna Garanča transported the audience to a lost time and place, even while embodying their characters’ ultimate timelessness. 

Andrea Marcon leads the Runfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin and the RIAS Kammerchor in Bach's Mass in B minor.

Clémentine Margaine and Riccardo Massi star as the troubled lover's in the Deutsche Oper's classic, yet bloodless, production of Carmen.

Emmanuelle Haïm leads Christiane Karg and Sonia Prina in Handel's sacred oratorio La resurrezione at the Berlin Philharmonic. 

Alvis Hermanis' new Tosca for the Berliner Staatsoper mixes innovation with tradition in an interesting, but ultimately ineffective, way. 

The Rias-Kammerchor and the Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin perform pieces by J.S. Bach, Handel and C.P.E. Bach.

Vittorio Grigolo and Ekaterina Gubanova star in Massenet's Werther in concert form with the Deutsche Oper Berlin. 

Handel's Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno at the Berliner Staatsoper with Les Musiciens du  Louvre Grenoble.

Joyce DiDonato, Carmen Giannattasio and Joseph Calleja star in a superb concert performance of Donizetti's Maria Stuarda at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. 

Though it has run for 45 years, the Deutsche Oper Berlin’s Tosca is both timeless and a relic. Stand-in tenor Stefano La Colla's impassioned performance drew a standing ovation. 

The Deutsche Oper's vintage production of Lucia di Lammermoor is fabulously eerie and strongly performed. 

Maurizio Pollini, Caudius Popp, and Felix Schwarz shine in an evening of Strauss and Brahms with Daniel Barenboim and the Staatskapelle Berlin. 

Irina Brook's new production of Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore sparkles in a witty new production at the Deutsche Oper Berlin.

Parsifal at the Deutsche Oper Berlin is both sublime and terrifying. Vincke's Parsifal was bold and heroic while Herlitzius sang with a silver, sinuous soprano. Stolzl's production gave us the fanaticism of religion rather than hope.

Jonas Kaufmann, German singer extraordinaire, may not be fully human. His exquisite chocolatey tenor, coupled with his extraordinary command of diction, tone and emotion, lend him an other-worldly air, whether performing opera or singing lieder. This man can do no wrong, as was witnessed Tuesday night at his Berlin Philharmonic performance of Schubert’s intense song cycle Winterreise.

A varied programme of music for flute trio spanning a wide period presented at Berlin's Konzerthaus. 

Le nozze di Figaro in Götz Friedrich’s vintage production at the Deutsche Oper Berlin provides an entertaining evening. 

Christian Spuck's new La damnation de Faust for the Deutsche Oper Berlin is creepy and elegant. Its impact will stay with you long after the opera is finished.

The Klassische Philharmonie Bonn performs Respighi, Beethoven and Mozart in Berlin's Konzerthaus.

Pop culture baggage and a notorious story aside, La Gioconda at the Deutsche Oper amuses and intrigues.

Ailyn Perez, Stephen Costello and Simon Keenlyside star in Verdi's La Traviata at the Deutsche Oper Berlin.

Benjamin Britten’s 100th birthday was celebrated on Thursday at the Berlin Konzerthaus with a spectacular performance of his seminal War Requiem.

Christof Loy’s new production of Falstaff for the Deutsche Oper Berlin is a conundrum. While the opera itself tells a story of comeuppance, Loy’s production seemed to be about the positive physical effects of playing pranks on your neighbors.

Verdi’s Don Carlo – the four-act Italian version – at the Deutsche Oper combines strong singing and acting with lush music in an evening that, despite its beauty, is not without its faults.

The Magic Flute at the Deutsche Oper Berlin is an interesting, well-sung and well-performed classic. Set in an agrarian world where Sarastro is less a high priest than he is a benevolent farmer-king, Günter Krämer’s 1991 production does not subvert the opera’s problems so much as it highlights them.

The Camerata Salzburg’s evening of Mozart, Enescu and Vaughan Williams at Berlin’s Konzerthaus was a crisp and bubbling performance that stimulated the intellect as well as the emotions. Beginning the evening with George Enescu’s Two Intermezzi for String Orchestra, the Camerata swept audience members away into a world gone, but too lovely to be forgotten.

Sometimes the remedy for an extremely fast-paced life is a mellow afternoon in a fabulous concert hall. So it was that on Sunday, the Orchestra of the Berlin Konzerthaus put on a program featuring Dvořák at his most pastoral.Led by Iván Fischer and featuring soprano Anna Lucia Richter and mezzo Olivia Vermeulen, the program was devoted entirely to Dvořák.

Offenbach’s opera The Tales of Hoffmann received a makeover Wednesday night in the world première performance of Anne Champert’s adaptation, Hoffmann. Eschewing the traditional for the phantasmagoric, Hoffmann puts the strangeness of E.T.

Nabucco opened the season at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, marking the first time in the company’s 100-year history that Verdi’s opera has been performed. Directed by Keith Warner, known for his often flamboyant productions, and conducted by Andrea Battistoni, the opera was warmly received by a delighted audience.

On August 17th, the Budapest Operetta Theater presented Emmerich Kalman’s beloved classic Die Csárdásfürstin at Berlin’s Waldbühne amphitheater.

Attila, Verdi’s ode to Italy (one of them), made its world première in Venice to huge bursts of patriotic feeling. “You can have the universe, but leave Italy for me!” exclaimed the Roman general Ezio, and the audience erupted. Small wonder: the opera appeared at the height of the Risorgimento, when Italy was in the process of unifying into one state.

Georges Bizet’s first major opera, composed and performed in Paris when he was a mere 25, has the dubious distinction of being both a success and a flop, depending on who is asked. Audiences at the première loved it, but critics panned it.