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Irene Théorin and Andreas Schager lead a stunning musical performance, as Guy Cassiers vision of The Ring becomes clear.  

German theatre director Uwe Eric Laufenberg freely incorporates some of Stanley Kubrik’s horror story concepts into his Elektra, but in ignoring both Sophocles and Strauss, is a long way from shining.  

Evelyn Herlitzius and Adrianne Pieczonka are unsinkable in the the French director's final production, conducted with impressive symphonic sweep by Daniel Barenboim. 

The late director Patrice Chéreau's last work, Elektra, was brilliantly realized at the Met, with special credit to conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen and soprano Nina Stemme.

The bright colours and childishness of Konwitschny’s production for the Bayerische Staatsoper shock but succeed. The cast and orchestra shine, especially in the final act.

Although technical problems threatened to undermine this production, Anja Harteros' Elsa and Klaus Florian Vogt's Lohengrin transcended all.

Tristan und Isolde is notoriously difficult to bring off in the theatre, but under Daniel Barenboim's direction, Waltraud Meier, Peter Seiffert and an outstanding cast give a profoundly moving performance of Harry Kupfer's production at the Berlin Staatsoper.

From introspective Mahler to flowing Schumann, Claudio Abbado is remembered at a concert with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra in Dresden's Frauenkirche.

The world ended again last night. It ends fairly frequently in performances and in recordings, and that schedule tends to innoculate us against Richard Wagner’s political and philosophical messages. If ever there were to be a performance to transcend that, it would come at the Proms, at the conclusion of its first full performance of Der Ring des Nibelungen.

Few conductors could hold an audience's applause whilst shaking hands with every member of the orchestra and then speaking extensively about politics. Daniel Barenboim, though, on completion of a week-long Beethoven cycle, did so and then dashed to the Olympic opening ceremony to bear the Olympic flag alongside Ban Ki-Moon, among others.

The plight of the introvert, stigmatised by society despite the many benefits of their contemplative natures and inner strength, is an important part of the contemporary Zeitgeist, but it is in fact nothing new.

Read our review of Robert Lepage's production of Wagner's Götterdämmerung in its 2012 broadcast from the Met Opera in New York.

The more intriguing a piece's title, the more interesting the endeavour to explore its connection to the compositional process. The Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, under Kent Nagano, opened their Edinburgh Festival concert with a shimmering piece by Tōro Takemitsu (1930-1996).