Live, Video: Kritiken zu klassischen Konzerten, Opern, Ballett und Tanz finden | Garry Walker

At a time when the “relevance” is bandied around all too frequently in relation to opera, Martinů's really does deserve that tag. 

A daring double bill from Opera North and Phoenix Dance Theatre pairs Jeanguy Saintus' new choreography for The Rite of Spring with a revival of Christopher Alden's production of Gianni Schicchi. 

Tough, thrilling, ambitious and new: The Skating Rink is an exciting new major commission by Garsington, and its world première delivered on every level.

At the opera’s great climaxes Suffolk’s famous wood-and-brick building could barely contain it.

Opera North's production of Benjamin Britten's Billy Budd, directed by Orpha Phelan, is a tense psychological drama which puts the emphasis on issues of democracy and attitudes to dictatorship. 

A suitably rustic account of Janáček’s tale: seductive, engaging, and with a sense of intimacy ideal for this small venue.

There can't have been too many concerts ever which have started with a setting of Gertrude Stein and ended with an extra-camp version of 'Ding Dong! The Witch is Dead'. The London Sinfonietta certainly broke a barrier or two on Saturday night, that's for sure.

New composers usually find it difficult, or rather near-impossible, to have their work performed in professional circumstances in front of a critical audience.

We were welcomed to one of the “more improbable lunchtime concerts ever” by James Waters, director of classical music at Horsecross: over 100 musicians from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (rebranded from RSAMD) playing Mahler’s colossal Symphony no. 7 straight through with no interval.

The Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s concerts in St Andrews are usually full-house events in the University’s Younger Hall, with recent repertoire covering Mozart piano concertos and Haydn symphonies at some length. This evening’s programme promised something quite different: four works celebrating ‘words and music’, as part of the StAnza poetry festival.

Last night saw the UK première of Alexander Raskatov's new opera A Dog's Heart, performed by ENO together with theatre company Complicite. The opera, based on a 1925 novella by Russian satirist Mikhail Bulgakov, tells the tale of Sharik, a stray dog who is given the testicles and pituitary gland of a human by an eminent surgeon, the Professor.