Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | English | Ekaterina Bakanova

The Opernhaus Zürich revives a 2011 production of Bizet’s second most famous opera, with Javier Camarena as Nadir.

A masterpiece from one of the Neapolitan School's most important protagonists, this rarely heard opera is musically rewarding but confusingly staged.

Mercadante's score proves to be something of a missing link between bel canto and early Verdi. 

Commissioned as an operetta, La rondine became a true opera instead, and was presented in 1917 in Montecarlo at the high point of WW1.

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.

Elena Barbalich's mis-en-scene for Le nozze di Figaro in Turin seemed a swirling game of Chinese boxes, but the vocal performances were full of vitality.