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Mélisande als Lulu in David Pountneys unbefriedigender Inszenierung von Debussys Pelléas et Mélisande für die Welsh National Opera.

Finding a partner for Bartók's creepy one-acter is a thorny problem, but Welsh National Opera pairs it with Stravinsky's ‘opera-oratorio’ for its season opener. 

Olivia Fuchs solves the problems of Britten's thorny opera in a brilliant new production that hits the heights, featuring Mark Le Brocq as earthbound scholar, Gustav von Aschenbach.  

Max Hoehn takes Così‘s subtitle, La scuola degli amanti (The School for Lovers), and connects it to Monty Python’s sex education sketch in The Meaning of Life. What larks, eh? 

Ryan Bancroft and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales give an extraordinary, terrifying account of Shostakovich’s Thirteenth Symphony, preceded by a Classical-Romantic tussle in Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto. 

Deborah Colker's production, seen last season at Scottish Opera, moves to the Wales Millennium Centre for an autumn tour. 

The BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conductor Ryan Bancroft and violinist Anthony Marwood deliver an evening of rapid gear-shifting, punchy momentum, dancing lyricism and mischief at Hoddinott Hall.

Olivia Fuchs gives a powerful staging of Janáček's morality tale of the perils of eternal youth, with an excellent cast, but there are reservations about the title role.

WNO finally emerges from the pandemic with a performance of The Barber of Seville full of emotion and elation.

A solid Figaro in Cardiff, in which individual performances are a joy, and humour abounds. 

David Pountney completes his “Verdi trilogy” for the company but although his staging has fluidity, it lacks an explosive ending... and the vocal performances disappoint. 

Virginie Verrez acted not with fire and ice but with gallic insouciance.

It is a thing of wonder that Roberto Devereux is one of Donizetti’s lesser known works. Whether on account of its challenging soprano part, or its fussy Tudor setting, it is rarely performed, but contains some of the composer’s most beautiful – and indeed memorable – arias and duets.

Dominic Cooke’s Magritte-inspired production returns to Wales Millennium Centre to keep the audience giggling. 

Musically, WNO gets it right. Straightforward brilliance is the order of the day, and plenty of it.

Delights both sugary and strange in this revival of La Cenerentola by Welsh National Opera.

WNO make a compelling case for Prokofiev's gargantuan War and Peace.

Jonathan Bloxham steps in for a presumably unwell Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla with the CBSO in Cardiff. 

A strong cast take us to the brink of damnation in Welsh National Opera’s revival of Don Giovanni.

Carlo Rizzi conducts WNO's Tosca revival in Cardiff.

When the entire plot is triggered by a freak accident, you can't blame director David Pountney for making Fate itself one of the key characters.  

Ryan Wigglesworth conducts a Huw Watkins première and a grand-scale account of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony

Thomas Søndergård conducts the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in Mosolov, Shostakovich and Beethoven with Igor Levit

David Pountney's House of the Dead makes for high entertainment at Welsh National Opera.

Welsh National Opera’s new season commemorating the centenary of the 1917 Revolution with three Russian-themed works opens with both a bang and a whimper with this trenchant revival.

A thrilling finale to the 2017 Cardiff Singer of the World

Gloriously sung and stylishly played, this Rosenkavalier is a feast for the ears and eyes and should be heard without delay. 

Michael Sanderling conducts the Dresden Philharmonic in Beethoven in Cardiff.

A musically excellent and unpretentious performance of Puccini's masterpiece from Cardiff.

Three English composers receive fine performances from the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

Luscious orchestral and choral sounds bring Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé to shimmering life.

Welsh National Opera's co-production of Kiss me, Kate is another good argument for opera companies to stage Broadway musicals.

Oliver Sears' production of Macbeth comes to Cardiff in a production which offers a great deal musically but doesn't quite coalesce dramatically. 

André Tchaikowsky's version of The Merchant of Venice combines his love of Shakespeare with his recollections of a harsh childhood as a Jew in the Warsaw Ghetto.

Welsh National Opera may have reached the ripe old age of seventy but it's very much alive and kicking.

David Jones' First World War epic poem comes to musical life in Iain Bell's newly-commissioned opera. 

As I had both hoped and expected, Widmann's Babylon Suite had an undercurrent of knowing wickedness and a sense of self-awareness that one would find in a Stravinsky ballet score.

Ratmansky's Concerto DSCH proves the perfect show opener, before the Mariinsky Ballet reclaims Sasha Waltz's Sacre.

Lothar Koenigs conducted a musically excellent and dramatically straightforward performance of Mozart's Marriage of Figaro in Cardiff.

Pascal Rophé, Elizabeth Atherton and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales celebrate Dutilleux’s centenary year with five contemporary works associated with the composer

Sondheim's Sweeney Todd seen and heard as it is: one of the greatest late-20th-century operas. 

With Lawrence Zazzo's spectacular counter-tenor voice, Handel's Orlando finds an ideal interpreter.

In a quirky programme featuring English, Welsh and Russian music the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales began their new season at St David’s Hall showcasing, with mixed results, their composer-in-association Huw Watkins, Elgar and three Russian composers at different stages in their careers.

Annilese Miskimmon's production of I puritani mixes Royalists with Loyalists - but is musically successful under Carlo Rizzi's baton.

Cardiff Castle hosted an entertaining bout of medieval jousting yesterday afternoon, but in the evening all eyes and ears turned to the vocal jousting in St David’s Hall.

Richard Ayres's Peter Pan, in a new WNO production, leaves J.M. Barrie's story dangling. 

Grand Holst and the première of Mark Bowden's A Violence of Gifts, performed with bombastic gusto and colour.

As part of the Philharmonia's City of Light series, the Gould Trio performed two Impressionist Piano Trios around two contrasting French Duos.

B Tommy Andersson's music promises more than it delivers in this showcase concert with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. 

Hansel and Gretel is often treated as a children's opera, suitable for family viewing at Christmas, but as Richard Jones' production demonstrates, it is a good deal darker than that.