Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Mark Pullinger

Pier Luigi Pizzi’s staging looks impressive but feels empty. Lidia Fridman’s Abigaille ignites the evening.

Franco Zeffirelli’s Aida – compact yet simultaneously monumental – is thrilling revived at the tiny Teatro Verdi in Busseto.

Manuel Renga directs a simple, but sympathetic production of Verdi's early opera set in 16th-century Peru. 

Swedish folk musician Ale Carr joins the multi-faceted Finn and Aurora Orchestra in an unconventional but brilliant take on Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.

The inaugural production of Oxford's new “international” company lacks direction, but Carmen Giannattasio’s Tosca makes the trip worthwhile. 

“Have I just written sacred music, or rather, sacrilegious music?” Rossini's Petite messe solennelle dons a period instrument mantle with the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique at London's Alexandra Palace.

With its busy videography, Kasper Holten's 2014 production returns, vibrantly conducted by Stefano Montanari. 

Isabelle Faust joins the FBO for a performance of Schumann's Violin Concerto, a work embargoed by the composer's friends after his death. 

Making his BBC Proms debut, Lahav Shani brings the Munich Philharmonic, days before becoming its new Chief Conductor. 

She came, she saw, she conquered. Serbian soprano Radoslava Vorgić steals the show as a radiant Cleopatra in Grimeborn Opera Festival's Giulio Cesare in Egitto. 

Finnish National Opera and Ballet’s season opens with an earthy new production of Verdi's perennial favourite, Aida, given a contemporary setting where even the victors suffer. 

Yannick Nézet-Séguin returns to the Proms with an all-Strauss programme, bringing his charges from the Metropolitan Opera, New York, and soprano Elza van den Heever for a slice of Salome.

Sir Antonio Pappano conducts the London Symphony Orchestra a shattering – but also moving – account of the Grande Messe des morts at the Royal Albert Hall

The LA Phil take two journeys – to the countryside and through the nine Circle of Hell – on their long overdue return to the BBC Proms... with variable results. 

Between energetic Haydn and Schumann, Daniel Lozakovich brings freshness to Max Bruch's evergreen First Violin Concerto as Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen concludes a European tour at the BBC Proms.

John Wilson embraces Respighi's panoramic impressions of Rome in an action-packed Italian day trip at the BBC Proms. 

Dalia Stasevska conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in a nod to #America250 and Yunchan Lim plays Ravel's jazzy Piano Concerto in G. 

Extra time and penalties beckon as Julia Lezhneva displays rapidfire coloratura and endless stamina in an evening capped with seven encores. 

Slow movements prove the highlights of the latest instalment of the Quatuor Ébène’s Beethoven cycle. What would Elgar and August “Nimrod” Jaeger have thought?

The revered Anthony Negus conducts a superb revival of Carmen Jakobi’s abstract production of Wagner’s transcendent drama at Longborough Festival Opera.

The role of Elvira in Bellini’s I puritani contains the most challenging mad scenes in all opera, but soprano Lisette Oropesa dazzles on the opening night of Richard Jones’ new production.

The Armenian soprano makes her Grange Festival debut – a casting coup that proves the single most compelling reason to see Max Webster’s new production.

A recreation of the final concert attended by Johannes Brahms marks the closing programme of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment's 40th season. 

Stephanie Childress conducts Sinfonia Smith Square in a Mahler First Symphony with a difference, “semi-staged” by Tom Morris, with both musicians and audience on the move.

Despite excellent vocal performances, David Alden’s production of Giulio Cesare in Egitto aims at irreverence but overplays the comedy.

Amy Lane directs an intimate staging of Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek’s 2018 chamber opera in the compact Milton Court Theatre. 

The young Spanish violinist proves an ardent advocate for a work originally dismissed as a “Hollywood Concerto” as the BBC Symphony Orchestra closes its Barbican season.

Sunday morning Mahler at the Wiener Konzerthaus sees Andris Nelsons concluding his symphony cycle with the Vienna Philharmonic in shattering fashion. 

Mark Ravenhill directs a brutal, bloody Salome at the spiritual home of British boxing, York Hall. 

At the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Rafael R Villalobos addresses the problems he perceives with Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera, although the musical performances – led by Anna Netrebko – compensate.

Patricia Nolz makes an outstanding role debut as Christian Thielemann conducts a thrusting Rosenkavalier to open the Staatsoper Unter den Linden's Festtage. 

Opha Phelan’s staging presents the action as a grand, Freudian social experiment. It’s a risk – but the production is lifted by outstanding performances from the cast and the Academy of Ancient Music.

Trouser – and toga – roles abound at Wigmore Hall as French mezzo-soprano Marianne Crebassa debuts with The Mozartists in arias from four key Mozart roles. 

Seong-Jin Cho continues his Artist Portrait series with the LSO by performing Chopin's poetic Second Piano Concerto. 

Alexandra Dovgan plays piano concertos by Clara and Robert Schumann at the Konzerthaus, but it's the Kammerorchester Basel's performance of a forgotten symphony which most impresses. 

With a trio of excellent performances, Balanchine's sassy Rubies proves the hit as Jewels – a relatively recent acquisition – returns to the Wiener Staatsballett. 

A double-header celebrates Schubert featuring Allan Clayton and Paul Lewis in Winterreise and the Austrian folk/rock band The Erllkings.

The second revival of Richard Jones' staging of Mussorgsky's original 1869 version of Boris Godunov once again stars the Welsh knight. 

Agony, ecstasy and a double murder: Bill Barclay and The Gesualdo Six combine for a theatrical concert celebrating the life – and death – of the Renaissance composer.

The Japanese pianist’s Mozart is highly regarded, but how would he fair in a programme ranging from Beethoven to Brahms, culminating in Liszt's greatest Wagnerian transcription?

Leif Ove Andsnes joins the Vienna Symphony in the Musikverein's Golden Hall for a glowing account of Brahms’ Second Piano Concerto before a terrific Tod und Verklärung. 

Returning for its first anniversary, Arielle Smith and Aaron S Watkin’s Nutcracker for English National Ballet remains a feast for hungry eyes, despite its flaws. 

Even without a gingerbread house, there’s enough wickedness in Richard Jones’ staging of Humperdinck’s opera for sweet tooths to savour.

Manuel Renga’s sensitive framing device sets up a sympathetic production of a problematic opera, but is scuppered by the central vocal performance.

Il campanello and Deux Hommes et une femme bomb at the Donizetti Opera festival, but the young singers of the Bottega Donizetti – and wily old hand Alessandro Corbelli – impress.

Francesco Micheli reimagines Caterina Cornaro in a contemporary setting, switching to the historical past, to open this year’s Donizetti Opera festival in the composer’s home town.

The first new production of Alessandra Ferri’s directorship of the Wiener Staatsballett sees the European premiere of Alexei Ratmansky’s narrative ballet Of Love and Rage under its new title, Callirhoe.

It may be on its 663rd outing, but Margarethe Wallmann's Tosca is a classic for a reason, as proved in this outstanding performance at the Wiener Staatsoper. 

John Wilson brings his Sinfonia of London to the BBC Proms to crown the Ravel 150 celebrations with a glowing performance of his hedonistic symphonie chorégraphique.

Born to a Basque mother just ten miles from the Spanish border, Ravel excelled at authentic Spanish flavours as heard in this splendid festival concert by the Orchestre National de France.