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

A wonderful performance of a hitherto little known 17th-century version of the Orpheus legend is performed by Raphaël Pichon and Pygmalion at the Adelaide Festival. 

It is hard to imagine a better performance of Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610 than this one by the French ensemble Pygmalion under the direction of Raphaël Pichon. 

Principal Conductor Bernard Labadie leads the Orchestra of St Luke’s in a superbly sung and played performance of Bach’s fiery and dramatic St John Passion. 

A superb orchestral performance from Paul Agnew and The English Concert lights up a breezy and fun staging of Rameau's ballet bouffon.

A concert performance of a Purcell semi-opera can never fully succeed, but compromise is worth it, if it enables us to hear a significant part of a major composer's output.

Àlex Ollé directs a rare version of Idoménée in Berlin, in which the staging fares better than the singing. 

The brainchild of opera director Monique Wagemakers, choreographer Nanine Linning and visual artist Lonneke Gordijn, this Orfeo by Nederlandse Reisopera is a thing of infinite beauty.

John Butt’s musicians show that Bach’s secular cantatas have just as much to offer as the sacred.

Handel's Alcina at the Karlsruhe 2019 Handel Festival scores on all fronts, with two Australians taking the main roles. 

Even Baroque specialist John Butt could not persuade the BBC Symphony Chorus to sing in tune

George Benjamin and Martin Crimp's second full scale opera is a refinement of the craft showed in Written on Skin – but the lessons are less in love and violince than in power, tension and beauty of the score.

A series of ill-advised staging choices leads to a disappointingly drab performance of Monteverdi's Homeric epic.

Historically informed rarities from Rameau and Vinci aim to recreate the world of 18th-century opera-going in Paris. But a misaligned production distracts from this specialised experience.

Music written by Bach for the Collegium Musicum, and also for the first Sunday after Easter, was played with skill and flourish by this exceptional orchestra;  sadly, the singing was not consistently good enough to match. 

Polished, deft and attentive, Les Arts Florissants deliver in concert the same slickness that we have come to expect from their impressive array of recordings, but lack vital energy.

William Christie and his ensemble Les Arts Florissants (or The blooming arts – a reference to an opera by Marc-Antoine Charpentier) visited the Hungarian capital to perform Handel’s Messiah in the exceptional acoustics of the Béla Bartók National Concert Hall. 

Arcangelo and three excellent singers performed 17th-century music inspired by Shakespeare in a vivid and amusing performance. Lipstick and pashmina anyone?

The coda to Juliet's "Convoi funèbre" crystallised all that was exceptional about this performance of Berlioz's symphonie dramatique.

Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Chorus were on top form, joined by a team of Baroque soloists under Handel expert Harry Bicket to produce a memorable Theodora.

In a ravishing and affectingly sung production, Floris Visser re-imagines the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice as the efforts of a grieving psyche trying to heal its devastating wounds.

At carnival time, Cavalli’s mission was to make his audience laugh, wow them with a bit of vocal gymnastics, butter up their romantic feelings with a few delicate cadences, and maybe leave a tear or two in their eye. It’s a potent formula, and it still works.

On entering the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at the Globe Theatre, you feel like you are stepping back in time with its painted ceiling, cushioned benches (a modern luxury) and a candlelit bare stage.

Paul McMcreesh leads Royal Northern Sinfonia and their chorus in a Messiah that deliveres all the intoxicating excitement of Handel's operatic writing. 

An impressive performance of Oedipus Rex under Sakari Oramo, demonstrating that his rapport with his new orchestra has grown rapidly. 

There is something pleasurably straining, for the big-hall, velvet-accustomed operagoer, about the experience of sitting for three hours on a very tiny bench in a charmingly chiselled, candlelit little theatre that invites contemplation in its own right – beyond the attractions, musical and other, set up within its frame.

Any venue, cathedral or concert hall, that advertises a Good Friday performance of J.S. Bach’s epic St Matthew Passion is likely to sell out; even Birmingham’s vast Symphony Hall is no exception, today being full to bursting with eager parishioners making their annual pilgrimage to wallow in Bach’s all-consuming musical ministry.

There was a sense of celebration in the air at the Sage Gateshead, as the Northern Sinfonia orchestra and chorus began their tenth season under the direction of Thomas Zehetmair with an all-Mozart programme. The hall was full, and before welcoming Zehetmair to the stage, Sage General Director Anthony Sargent had a bit of fun showing off Hall One’s fancy new multi-coloured lighting effects.

Chor und Orchester des Collegium Vocale Gent und ihr charismatischer Leiter Philippe Herreweghe, längst Legenden der historischen Aufführungspraxis, beweisen, dass die Doppelchörigkeit der Matthäus-Passion nicht nur ein Stereo-Phänomen ist.

Philippe Herreweghe ofreció una versión de la Pasión según san Mateo al frente del coro y la orquesta Collegium Vocale Gent de notable factura, emocionante y extremadamente expresiva.

Dans la salle rénovée de La Cité Bleue, le chef suisse-argentin a proposé un programme « Opus Infinitum » d'une rare intelligence, formidablement interprété.

Teil 1 der Trias Die Wege Bachs lieferte bereits die Kombination für den Tresor zum musikalischen Paradies.

Eine Nachfeier CVGs 50. Jubiläums mit perfektionslüsternder Vertrautheit und Geborgenheit der Stimmen in Anbetracht werklicher Durchdringung, prächtiger Berichtspflicht und Menschlichmachung.

C'est la première mise en scène d'opéra du chorégraphe Angelin Preljocaj et ce coup d'essai est un absolu coup de maître, rehaussé par la direction de Leonardo García Alarcón.

Eine absolute Rarität, die die Ausführenden selbst zur Referenz machten und dem Stück die Auszeichnung bescherten, es unbedingt in den Kanon der Ostermusiken aufzunehmen.

George Benjamins neue Oper beschreibt eindringlich einen durch Liebe hilflosen König – Hannigan und Degout füllen die tiefgründige Musik mit hingebungsvollem Emotionsspiel.

Le 4 novembre 2015, Raphaël Pichon reconstituait de manière spatialisée à la Chapelle Royale de Versailles les musiques vraisemblablement jouées pour les funérailles du Roi Soleil, il y a 300 ans. A travers un programme historiquement informé, l'ensemble Pygmalion a restitué une cérémonie funéraire bouleversante de solennité et de beauté.