Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | English | Maurizio Benini

Stripped of its original superstar casting, Gounod’s grand opera provides entertainment but fails to cohere. 

A promising cast on paper is scuppered by a banal, monotonous production and uninspired conducting.

Laurent Pelly’s darkly stylish production of Manon is revived with a strong cast of singers. In the title role, Lisette Oropesa demonstrated elegant and incisive singing, while Michael Fabiano was her virile and powerful partner.

Lotte de Beer’s Il barbiere di Siviglia for Dutch National Opera seems a surprisingly traditional spectacle... although it does come with a twist.

Despite a great cast, the Metropolitan Opera's revival of Semiramide bores with tacky costumes and no direction.

A mural depicting Etna erupting is the only hint of Sicily in Stefan Herheim’s opulent staging, returning to Covent Garden for the first time since the Royal Opera’s Verdi bicentenary celebrations in 2013. 

Two years ago, Russian soprano Ekaterina Bakanova was thrust into her Royal Opera debut, stepping in at short notice as Violetta. Her triumph was enough for the powers that be to offer her a run of five performances this month.

As it turned out, the second performance of the Met’s revival of I puritani was the one to see – it offered some of this season’s greatest singing – and a surprise.

Liudmyla Monstyrska and John Relyea turn in strong performances and Plácido Domingo confirms his hallowed status, but Daniele Abbado's direction remains unappealing in this first revival.

Sondra Radvanovsky tackles another Donizetti queen - Elisabetta in Roberto Devereux - at The Met. 

Led by phenomenal performances by tenor Javier Camarena and his superb colleagues, Met's Don Pasquale was a joyous occasion to celebrate Donizetti's late Opera Buffa.

In spite of the not insignificant problems, Opera Rara are utterly convincing that Leoncavallo's Zazà is a work that should be seen and heard more often.

At the Dutch National Opera, director Àlex Ollé from La Fura dels Baus stages a dark and monochromatic Trovatore, in which the four stars shine.

The devil may not get all the best tunes in Gounod’s Faust, but Gábor Bretz certainly stole the show in this new production at Hungarian State Opera. 

Joyce DiDonato is joined by Lawrence Brownlee and Laura Claycomb for an entertaining program of bel canto repertoire. 

The Met's revival of Lucia di Lammermoor was a collaborative success, with singers, orchestra and chorus cohering well.  

A prelude that was pedestrian rather than portentous signalled Maurizio Benini’s approach to Rigoletto: Verdi as aural Ovaltine, tucked up in cosy dressing gown and slippers.

Few operas are as specific in time and place as Puccini's Tosca: the date is 17th June, 1800, shortly after the battle of Marengo (in which Napoleon Bonaparte wrested control of Northern Italy from Austria), while each of the three acts is located in a specific landmark in Rome: the church of Sant'Andrea della Valle, the Palazzo Farnese and the Castel Sant'Angelo.

It was with great curiosity that I set off for the Barbican on Saturday night. I’ve never been to see an opera in the cinema before – I don’t think I’ve even sat through a pre-recorded film of an opera for many years, as I am a great fan of the “real thing”: opera performed live on stage.

Read our review of David McVicar's production of Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda in its 2013 broadcast from the Met Opera in New York.

Read our review of Bartlett Sher's production of Rossini's L'Elisir d'Amore in its 2012 broadcast from the Met Opera in New York.

Read our review of Bartlett Sher's production of Rossini's Le Comte Ory in its 2011 broadcast from the Met Opera in New York.

When Franz Liszt conducted Le Comte Ory in Weimar, he said it “bubbled like champagne,” according to the Metropolitan Opera’s program note. It also noted that Liszt arranged for the audience to be served champagne in Act II.

Read our review of Cesare Lievi's production of Rossini­'s Cenerentola in its 2009 broadcast from the Met Opera in New York.

Read our review of Bartlett Sher's production of Rossini­'s Il Barbiere di Siviglia in its 2007 broadcast from the Met Opera in New York.