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Musikalisch war Daniele Gattis Falstaff eine Offenbarung und ein grandioser Einstieg als Chef an der Semperoper. Auch das Sängerensemble nötigte Bewunderung ab. Michielettos Personenführung diente der Komödie gut, blieb aber im szenischen Setting einigermaßen belanglos.

„Hier wird’s Ereignis – das Unbeschreibliche, hier ist‘s getan“ – mit diesen Worten endet Goethes Faust II, Mahlers Symphonie und damit auch die Amtszeit von Christian Thielemann als Chefdirigent der Sächsischen Staatskapelle.

David Bösch inszeniert in Christian Thielemanns letzter Oper als Chefdirigent eine kreative und durchdachte Neuinszenierung von Die Frau ohne Schatten an der Semperoper. 

Christian Thielemann leitet mit seiner letzten Wagner-Oper seinen Abschied als Chefdirigent der Staatskapelle Dresden ein.

Mit einer festspielwürdigen Besetzung führt Christian Thielemann die Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden zur der Wiederaufnahme der Meistersinger von Nürnberg an.

Erschöpft aber glücklich beendet Herbert Blomstedt Bruckners Sechste Symphonie, die wohl niemand so schnell vergessen wird...

Aufbruch hätte die Integrale des Dresdner Festspielorchesters markieren können, stattdessen akquirierte Gattis Interpretation keine besondere Lebhaftigkeit.

Christian Thielemann bildet mit der Staatskapelle das ideale Fundament für eine musikalische Meisterleistung.

Die vier Bachkantaten verbreiteten in der Dresdner Frauenkirche in den Händen Gardiners und seiner Ensembles befreiende Freude.

Anna Netrebkos und Piotr Beczalas Lohengrin-Debüt unter Christian Thielemann an der Semperoper bringt das Haus zum Beben.

Anna Netrebko gab ihre erste Elsa in Dresden unter der Leitung von Christian Thielemann. Es war eine bemerkenswerte Vorstellung, die man nicht vergisst.

Am Dienstag vor genau 467 Jahren unterzeichnete Moritz von Sachsen das Gründungsdokument der heutigen Staatskapelle. Aus diesem Anlass präsentierten Mitglieder des Orchesters am Dienstagabend vier Werke aus Tradition und Moderne.

Der 80-jährige Peter Schreier dirigiert in seinem Geburtstagskonzert ein Monumentalwerk - Teil eines Spendenmarathons zur Finanzierung der Orgel im neuen Dresdner Kulturpalast.

Mit spannendem Bühnenbild und gerissener Personenführung schafft die neue Dresdener Produktion der deutschesten aller Opern, Webers Freischütz, den Spagat zwischen Tradition und Kitsch.

Es gab zwar widersprüchliche visuelle Aspekte in dieser Inszenierung von Bizets Carmen in der Dresdner Semperoper, aber es war eine erfreuliche Vorstellung, und wenn schon keine Augen-, dann sicherlich eine Ohrenweide.

Le pianiste islandais interprète sans pause une série de pièces en mi (majeur ou mineur) de Bach, Schubert et Beethoven, avec de grandes qualités dans les nuances piano mais des forte trop uniformes.

Pour sa prise de fonction à la tête de l'orchestre dresdois, le chef britannique a dirigé un concert d'ouverture passionnant, notamment dans une Quatrième Symphonie de Brahms très réussie.

The Dresden Music Festival public renew their love for Jan Vogler, who is joined by festival debutants from Parma. 

Katharina Thalbach offers a traditional staging at the Semperoper, with fine vocal performances led by Krassimira Stoyanova, Francesco Meli and Oksana Volkova. 

Collegium 1704 takes the Czech Baroque composer online, with impressive results.

John Osborn leads a very successful premiere of Peter Konwitschny's new production of Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots in Dresden

Saioa Hernández leads a solid cast in Dresden in a somewhat disappointing new production by David Bösch.

What brought real distinction and authenticity to the evening, as so often in this house, was the outstanding playing of the Staatskapelle conducted by Tomaš Netopil. From the start of the overture with its rapidly scurrying fugato for strings and pointed phrasing from the woodwind one felt the true sense of Smetana’s Czech inflected rhythms and harmonies

Christian Thielemann led a memorable performance of Strauss's chamber opera Ariadne auf Naxos with a strong cast in a new straightforward production by David Hermann.

With a plethora of theatre seats, stools and benches it was as if Willy Decker and Wolfgang Gussman had been elected ‘Chair-men of the bored”.

The third installment of Semperoper Dresden’s Ring des Nibelungen cycle ups the ante with an outstanding ensemble performance.

Christian Thielemann and the Staatskapelle Dresden orchestra are let down by sub-optimal singers in Willy Deckers chair-laden production of  Die Walküre. 

Wagner demands vocal resilience from the large cast of singers in Das Rheingold, but Willy Decker wants strong thigh muscles as well.

In a score that can be a Technicolor wallow, Jurowski’s sure sense of dramatic pulse and balance, encompassed the brash dance rhythms, religious grandeur, vivid tone painting and the extremes of dissonance.

Emily Magee was in glowingly refulgent voice as the 'damsel in distress', Euryanthe, in this concert performance of Weber's rarity. 

An exceptional musical performance was enhanced by a streamlined but ultimately moving staging in an evening of near perfection in Dresden.

For the centennial celebration of Max Reger’s death, American pianist Peter Serkin and Herbert Blomstedt travelled to Saxony, the composer’s birthplace, touring orchestras with his Piano Concerto in F minor.

In 12 highly dynamic and buoyant scenes, Alexander Ekman’s new ballet COW is at once theater, dance, social commentary and divine comedy. 

Torsten Fischer's Nazified production of Strauss' Daphne in the Semperoper Dresden may leave you confused, but it receives a solid performance. 

From introspective Mahler to flowing Schumann, Claudio Abbado is remembered at a concert with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra in Dresden's Frauenkirche.

Taking a “transatlantic bridge” as their theme for the evening, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center featured music by Ravel, Gershwin, Korngold and Antheil. 

A modern, simple production of Simon Boccanegra at Dresden's Semperoper, doesn’t interfere with the action.  

Les Arts Florissants performs Monteverdi's Seventh Book of Madrigals with a sense of spontaneity and flare at the Dresdner Musikfestspiele.

Erika Sunnegårdh’s Salome impresses in a revival of Peter Mussbach's striking production at the Dresden Semperoper. 

Peter Konwitschny’s Tannhäuser at Dresden’s Semperoper dates back to 1997, making it relatively old for an opera production, and though I sense this may be its last revival, it is still modern and engaging.

Simone Young and the Dresdner Philharmonie make a formidable partnership. The orchestra play with such a wonderful sound, especially in the wind and brass sections, and the range of colours they conjure is incredible. And Young clearly revels in the orchestra’s technical facility, but still always bringing something extra, and never taking away from what the orchestra can do for themselves.

Verdi’s opera Macbeth is often considered less successful than his later operas, and considerably less so than his other two Shakespeare operas, Falstaff and Otello.

The genre of semi-opera is a peculiarly British one. Emerging from the courtly Masques during the restoration, the semi-opera served as an English operatic utterance, at a time where opera was emerging as one of the pre-eminent theatrical forms in Europe.

The Palais im Großen Garten in Dresden is an interesting place to perform classical music. It’s completely unlike any other concert venue, with its wholly dilapidated interior projecting an image of lost grandeur. In many ways this is perfect for a classical music concert, especially chamber music.

I often think you can tell the quality of an orchestra by looking at the back desks of its string sections, and the players on the fringes of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic play with as much vigour as those at the front; their joy in the music is both visible and audible. The result is a strong and complex string sound, well blended, but with a coolness you don’t get from most German orchestras.

Singing polyphonic music requires a specific sound. To be truly effective there must be a beautifully rounded and well blended choral sound, but at the same time the individual lines must be clearly decipherable within the overall texture. This is a balance that The Tallis Scholars seem to find effortless.

Whatever our relationship with music we often have moments in our lives where the thing we’ve always loved feels like little more than a habit, or worse still a chore. You go to a concert and sit through it, and you know in your head that the orchestra played well and that the soloists were excellent, but your heart remains unmoved.

Dating from 2008, the Semperoper’s current production of Rigoletto is quite intriguing. It’s set in what appears to be a swanky 21st-century Berlin apartment – industrial, sparse and effortlessly cool – and in many ways this is an interesting choice.

J.S. Bach didn’t write an opera, but if he had, it’d probably be the best opera in the world. Fortunately for us, he wrote the next best thing, his Mattäus-Passion, a work of such dramatic power, that even in the concert or church settings in which it is usually performed, its highly emotional narrative thread is still captivating.