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Mozart's Requiem packs in the crowd, but it's Berg's Violin Concerto with Carolin Widmann that really finds the spiritual depth.

Director Johannes Erath and conductor Alexander Soddy bring György Kurtág's first and only opera to the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, starting the year with a dash of Beckett.

John Dexter's production, now among the longest-serving in the company's repertory, remains a marvel of simple, effective storytelling.

Laurent Pelly’s new production combines froth and hilarity with a dark, satirical heart; Marc Minkowski and the orchestra seduce us.

Ludovic Morlot conducts Berlioz’s Roméo et Juliette with The Hallé.

Marco Arturo Marelli's 2012 production lacks mystery but puts a fine Golaud centre stage, while Esa-Pekka Salonen ensures superior musical values in the pit. 

Sir Mark Elder conducts a memorable performance of Berlioz' masterpiece in Manchester's Bridgewater Hall.

The Met's new season opens with a new Samson et Dalila only marginally more trashy than Saint-Saëns’ peculiar brand of kitschy orientalism.

Dismembered after the 1840 bankruptcy of its promoter, Opera Rara's decade-long reconstruction has resulted in a beautifully constructed opera that's enjoyable throughout.

Bartlett Sher's production of Gounod's Romeo et Juliette returns to the Met. 

Laurent Pelly’s staging provided some of the most memorable moments in this performance of Cendrillon. 

Bartlett Sher's production of The Tales of Hoffmann, revived at The Met, takes a Kafka-esque, surreal view of the opera.

An unapologetic treat at the Proms and a composition of immediate appeal.

Prom 20 proved an exhilarating journey, featuring Berlioz’s Roméo et Juliette as one of the key works of this year’s BBC Proms' Shakespeare 400 celebrations.

Great opera at the Los Angeles Philharmonic as Esa-Pekka Salonen conducted Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande as part of the City of Light, a retrospective that examines works seen in Paris during the first half of the 20th century. 

The task sounded Herculean: turning Benvenuto Cellini, that reputedly difficult, flawed work by Berlioz, into an utterly entertaining show that renders justice to its youthfully energetic music. This is what Terry Gilliam manages to pull off... and it is nothing short of miraculous.

Great singing and acting from the Met's Tales of Hoffmann second cast. 

With the Philharmonia on top form, a superlative cast and clever touches of direction, this was a truly stunning concert performance of Debussy's only opera.

Opera at the 2012 Proms began with a performance of Debussy’s only completed opera, Pelléas et Mélisande. Conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner, the production celebrated the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth, and marked the 24 years since Gardiner first brought the work to the Royal Albert Hall with the Opéra de Lyon.

Claude Debussy’s only opera, Pelléas et Mélisande, calls for a spring in a forest, scenes in a palace, a well in a park and a scene in the palace vaults. Ever since its premiere in 1902, it has been a difficult work to stage, and indeed to appreciate. Its complex symbolism, impressionistic music and lack of any memorable melodies were not a good recipe for a runaway hit.

We spent last night in Zurich, where we had the chance to see the Zurich Opernhaus production of Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffmann. It’s the first time I’ve been to the opera house here and the first time I’ve seen Offenbach on stage, so interesting on both counts. The opera house is “small but perfectly formed”, as the cliché goes.