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Thaddeus Strassberger’s Brussels debut presents Berlioz's opera semiseria with plenty of good music but far more visual noise. 

Projection proves a problem for the singers, but this Theodora at BOZAR is nevertheless full of musical and spiritual beauty.

A marathon double bill using music from Verdi's early operas largely falls flat in Brussels. 

Foccroulle’s limited score imitates environmental catastrophe while Jocelyn’s libretto tries – unevenly – to understand why we might ignore it.

Barbara Hannigan is better than ever in Krzysztof Warlikowski's iconic Lulu at La Monnaie – an historic event.

Kristjan Järvi conducts the Brussels Philharmonic and the Vlaams Radiokoor in a programme of Arvo Pärt's music. 

A highly satisfying level of polish in La Monnaie's stream in which one recognizes a precisely executed live performance at its core – one that would be thrilling to experience in person. 

Part of Brussels' Ars Musica festival, the concert also included a fun world premiere by Claire-Mélanie Sinnhuber, and the riveting Streaming Arhythmia by Anna Thorvaldsdottir.

Stanislav Kochanovsky, Nikolai Lugansky and the Belgian National Orchestra impress with an all-Russian triple bill.

Dmitri Tcherniakov's staging turns Rimsky-Korsakov's opera into storytelling for an autistic boy, but does he deliver a fairy tale ending? 

Think of an exhilarating journey animated by an expert guide who lives and enjoys every moment, yet makes you believe he is discovering it with you and isn’t afraid to tease you with some daredevil steps off the beaten track.

Beethoven’s Fifth and Sixth Symphonies and a dazzling new work by Wim Henderickx at Bozar

Expert conductor Herbert Blomstedt and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra bring impeccable Mendelssohn, Brahms and Stenhammar to Brussels.

Some 15 minutes long, in a slow-fast-slow form, Le Tombeau de Napoléon wraps a taxing solo part for tenor trombone in a dramatically compelling and sonically thrilling orchestral canvas.

Deeply moving and often terrifyingly dark, Gergiev and the Mariinsky took us on a devastating ride towards the abyss which eventually left me grabbing for a rope.

Fiery Prokofiev but lacklustre Britten with the National Orchestra of Belgium.

Blomstedt, in splendid form at 91, also paid tribute to his largely forgotten compatriot Franz Berwald, who died 150 years ago.

The Allegro assai fared best of all with feverishly energetic strings and an astonishingly violent fugato development.

Lisbeth Gruwez and Nicolas vladyslav zoom in on what fear does to the body. An intense performance that goes further than just a demonstration of tight muscles and stress.

Laurent Pelly exploits the satirical side of Rimsky-Korsakov's The Golden Cockerel at La Monnaie in a darkly humorous but colourfully performed production.

Strauss' 'conversation piece' of an opera is given a warmly sympathetic production with the musical rewards coming as much from the pit as the stage.

An opera that pokes fun at opera seria? An opera that features backstage preparations for a show, followed by an opera within an opera? No, it’s not Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos. 

Full of melodic treasures hidden for ages, Anton Rubinstein's The Demon answers the most demanding expectations.

Despite its failings, La Monnaie turn Gaspare Spontini's 1805 La vestale into a fascinating evening's opera.

The world première of Giya Kancheli’s Nu.Mu.Zu is the blow-your-socks-off highlight of an evening that includes colourful playing of Falla and Strauss.

Sometimes catching a performance with its second cast can be as revealing as attending a first night, and that was the case with this production of Rigoletto by the Canadian director Robert Carsen at La Monnaie in Brussels.

It can be a strange experience to listen to Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto no. 2 without the visuals of Celia Johnson’s doe-eyed sadness and Trevor Howard’s tortured half-smile to go with it, so synonymous is the work with Brief Encounter, Noël Coward’s celebrated paean to 1940s English morality and thwarted love.

Few venues do “faded grandeur” better than the Royal Conservatoire of Brussels. The auditorium of Belgium’s premier music college is a venerable grande dame of a concert hall – all off-white paint peeling from cracked walls and heavy red velvet curtains coated with dust – making it an elegant and alluring place in which to while away an evening, its imperfections lending a certain sepia-tinged spa

Most musicians with an arresting stage presence tend to command attention with an awe-inspiring magnetism. There are, however, a handful who possess a rare ability to mesmerize an audience just as much with a calm and phlegmatic demeanour.

Brussels’ Palais des Beaux-Arts occupies the site where once stood the Pensionnat Héger, the school where Charlotte and Emily Brontë lived during their sojourn in the Belgian capital – an appropriate setting, as it is not difficult to imagine Bruckner’s mighty Fourth Symphony underscoring one of the sisters’ Gothic tales of unrequited love.

In Pierre Audi’s new production of Handel’s Orlando, currently running at La Monnaie in Brussels (until 12 May, and thereafter available free online on their website for three weeks), the knight Orlando is portrayed as a modern-day fireman who in his fascination with fire has become an arsonist – “pyromane” as Audi explains in the programme.

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Scorned womanhood has no better archetype than Euripides's Medea. And you're unlikely to see a more powerful or affecting Medea than Nadja Michael's performance in Cherubini's opera Médée, in the first production of the new season at La Monnaie in Brussels (De Munt, if you're a Flemish speaker.)Like all good Greek tragedy, we all know the story.

The poetry of Arthur Rimbaud was, to borrow a phrase from the 1960s, "way out there." His 1870s collection Les Illuminations inspired Benjamin Britten, who set a selection of the poems to music: the words are surreal, bizarre, sometimes erotic, always onomatopoeic and packed with interesting sounds.

Dans un programme qui allait de Dvořák à Ravel en passant par le rare Concerto n° 1 pour violoncelle de Martinů brillamment interprété par Sol Gabetta, l'orchestre amstellodamois et son chef invité ont atteint des sommets.

Dans Les Nuits d'été comme dans la Cinquième Symphonie de Mahler, les interprètes ont su souligner le raffinement instrumental de l'écriture sans tomber dans la surenchère sonore.

Au concert inaugural du Klarafestival 2026, la pianiste chinoise a alterné avec justesse pianisme athlétique et jeu mystérieux, volant la vedette à un Esa-Pekka Salonen en retrait.

Après un Concerto pour deux pianos K365 de Mozart idéal sous les doigts de Lucas et Arthur Jussen, l'orchestre viennois et son directeur musical ont déçu dans la partition monumentale de Richard Strauss.

Après Harold en Italie remarquablement joué et presque mis en scène par Antoine Tamestit, le Belgian National Orchestra et la cheffe finlandaise ont impressionné dans la « Pathétique » de Tchaïkovski.

Le violoncelle vif-argent de la musicienne argentine et la maîtrise tranquille du pianofortiste australien ont fait merveille dans trois pièces du romantisme allemand.

Sous la direction précise et inspirée de sa directrice musicale, l'Estonienne Kristiina Poska, l'orchestre constitué de musiciens de 16 à 25 ans a livré un concert aussi exemplaire qu'emballant.

Nun mit der Eroica, gepaart mit Cherubinis Requiem, liefert Herreweghe im Zyklus mit dem Orchestre des Champs-Élysées seinen bisher besten, weil entschieden dramatischeren Beethoven ab.

Le chef et le pianiste invités ont été à la tête d'interprétations remarquables d'œuvres pas si couramment programmées, de la Fantaisie op. 80 de Beethoven à la Sixième Symphonie de Bruckner...

Créé au printemps 2024 au KVS, le Théâtre flamand de Bruxelles, cet opéra qui conte l'histoire vraie d'Ali Abdi Omar a à présent les honneurs de La Monnaie et ce n’est que justice.

L'ancien lauréat du Concours Reine Elisabeth a montré toutes ses qualités dans le Concerto de Brahms, entre deux pièces de Schumann interprétées par un BNO exemplaire sous la direction de Michael Schønwandt.

Le metteur en scène français transpose avec succès l'action dans l'Angleterre des années 1960, bien suivi par l'ensemble de la distribution, très homogène.

Le metteur en scène imagine une mise en abyme qui montre ses limites. Sur le plan musical c'est en revanche une réussite, de Nathalie Stutzmann à la baguette à Stéphanie d'Oustrac dans le rôle-titre.

Dans des circonstances émouvantes, l'Orchestre Symphonique de la Monnaie, les chœurs de la maison bruxelloise et l'alto Nora Gubisch ont livré une interprétation mémorable de cette œuvre-fleuve.

Les absents ont eu tort de manquer un très beau programme classique viennois, avec une soprano en état de grâce et un chef inspiré, suivi avec enthousiasme par des musiciens volontaires et disciplinés.

La jeune musicienne russe a réservé au public de la Chapelle protestante un récital original et de haute tenue, associant aux suites de Bach des pièces modernes dans un jeu toujours convaincant.