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

Putting Gershwin up against Mahler is a challenge, but Simone Young and Jean-Yves Thibaudet bring it off in the Sydney Symphony's 2026 season opener. 

Elijah Moshinsky’s 33-year-old production of Hansel and Gretel hasn’t aged well. 

Opera Australia's new Turandot succeeds with musical, dramatic and visual values with a mix of local and imported talent. 

Bach Akademie Australia, led by its founder Madeleine Easton, presents as good a performance of the complete Brandenburgs as anyone could be wished for.

Terrific orchestral colours abound in this Sydney Symphony concert under Simone Young, adding to a thoughtful and emotive rendering of one of the best-known cello concertos.

A delightful programme welcomes conductor Lionel Bringuier and returning cellist Daniel Müller-Schott to Sydney.

Two mighty piano sonatas bookend Marc-André Hamelin's concert at Sydney's City Recital Hall. 

Three very different works from the long life of Richard Strauss are performed by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra under Simone Young.

Stephen Layton conducts Haydn and Handel, and is joined by soprano Sara Macliver for Bach and Mozart for a joyful evening. 

Siobhan Stagg is an outstanding Susanna in a strongly cast and well produced Marriage of Figaro at the Sydney Opera House

Nicole Car makes her role debut as Dvořák's Rusalka in a production by Sarah Giles that proves a winner. 

Danielle de Niese's assumes the title role at the Sydney Opera House, leading an impressive cast with an interesting approach to characterisation with a somewhat over the top blingy setting. 

A rare 17th-century English Baroque spectacular, designed to delight the Restoration crowd, is given a contemporary twist in Sydney. 

Bangarra Dance Theatre's 2025 commissioned work reclaims space and offers ambitious visuals, but sacrifices intimacy. 

Elim Chan expertly conducts the SSO through a varied programme featuring an Australian fanfare, Russian ballet music and Brahms' First Piano Concerto with Sir Stephen Hough. 

A most appealing Romantic programme by the French pianist at Sydney's City Recital Hall, played with accurate finesse in search of emotional highlights. 

A heartfelt performance from American countertenor with the Bach Akademie Australia with contrasting spiritual works by Bach and Vivaldi. 

Neumeier's Nijinsky explores the professional and personal life of the legendary dancer with intense choreography and powerful performances.  

Both evocative and restrained, Sydney Dance Company's Somos returns to Sydney for its second season. 

Yaron Lifschitz mesmerises from the opening tableaux’s row of candles in his Purcell staging for Opera Australia, featuring Circa, a Brisbane-based circus company. 

Dean Bryant's production of Leonard Bernstein’s operetta leans more towards musical theatre, blending French period costumes with weak attempts at Aussie humour. 

Awe-inspiring performances of much loved classics in Sydney, yet the musical eyebrows have reasons to go (and stay) up. 

Emotions on stage are matched by those rising from the pit as Sarah Giles' popular production returns to Sydney. 

Missy Mazzoli's Dark with Excessive Bright is the centrepiece of the Omega Ensemble's contribution to the festival's imaginative chamber music series. 

A thoroughly enjoyable and brilliantly performed version of Rossini's great comic opera at the Sydney Opera House. 

This abridged version of Massenet's Cendrillon was clearly chosen for a wide Sydney audience, succeeding as a popular offering in the Australian summer holiday season. 

Brimming with festive season joy, the Australian Ballet gives an exuberant performance of a Peter Wright classic: The Nutcracker. 

With four diverse and dynamic works on offer, Sydney Dance Company promises an interesting and exciting future for its next generation of choreographers. 

Bangarra Dance Theatre’s next generation of artists shine in Dance Clan.

After so many terrific concerts in the last few months, Petrenko's performance with the SSO does not quite fulfill expectations.

Handel's Giulio Cesare is heavily abridged in Sydney, but generally well-performed musically, albeit with a rather awkward staging by Neil Armfield. 

Wotan's predicaments provide Sydney's victory: Chief Conductor Simone Young has her musicians on some of their best form in recent years, with only a few question marks over an excellent concert performance.

The Australian Ballet’s first commissioned full-length work in 20 years, based on the life of Oscar Wilde, fails to fully take flight. 

A powerful work by brave innovators is a legacy for the departing Opera Australia Artistic Director. 

Sydney Dance Company premieres Melanie Lane’s Love Lock, alongside existing repertoire Impermanence by Rafael Bonachela. It’s a work of bold genius and a dazzling double bill that's not to be missed. 

Japanese soprano Yukie Sato joins the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra for a concert of Handel arias and orchestral works by Vivaldi and Pisandel, with a significant contribution from concertmaster Shawn Lee-Chen. 

Opera Australia's well nigh perfect production of Mozart's Così fan tutte excels in every dimension, with an excellent ambiguous conclusion.

80% less of Shakespeare's text adds up to more intensity in Brett Dean's Hamlet as Neil Armfield's staging is mounted by Opera Australia. 

In the run-up to Bastille Day, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra offers an entirely French programme under the baton of Stéphane Denève, with Olivier Latry as organ soloist.

A fine ensemble cast brings Puccini's triptych of one-acters to the Sydney Opera House stage, with stand-out performances from Lauren Fagan, Viktor Antipenko, Simon Meadows and Angela Hogan.

Bangarra Dance Theatre brings a millennium of cultural knowledge and storytelling to the Sydney Opera House in its world premiere double bill Horizon.

In a perspective-shifting feast of dance, theatre and cinema, Benjamin Millepied's L.A. Dance Project retells Romeo and Juliet in the Sydney Opera House. 

Mahler's epic five-movement symphonic song cycle is performed by a chamber ensemble with mixed results.

Making her debut on the conductor’s podium, Han-Na Chang’s enthusiastic musicality makes a strong impression at the Sydney Opera House, in Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto no. 2 and Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony.

The Australian Ballet presents a diverse double bill of contemporary and classical dance, including its first major work from choreographer in residence Stephanie Lake. Unfortunately, only the classical piece exhilarates.

Swedish choreographer, Johan Inger, reimagines Carmen for The Australian Ballet, and purports to flip the script on "toxic masculinity" and the 200 year old tale of power and passion.  

Kristian Bezuidenhout joins the ACO for a piecemeal programme leading to a complete performance of Beethoven's Emperor Concerto. 

A faultless performance of whisper-quiet intimacy alternating with thundering counterpoint as the Icelandic pianist makes his much anticipated Australian debut. 

Can a perfect performance of the stupendous Gurrelieder be anything other than five stars?

A powerful season-opening concert featuring Renaud Capuçon playing the Australian premiere of Camille Pépin's Violin Concerto Le Sommeil a pris ton empreinte.