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Andreas Homoki's meta-staging in Paris' Opéra-Comique cannot detract from strong musical performances at the Edinburgh Festival, led by Gaëlle Arquez as a near-perfect Carmen.  

The Armenian soprano sweeps all before her in a delightfully controlled, touching performance, enhanced by a voice that would melt the stoniest of hearts. 

One of the leading events of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden's Festtage, Jérémie Rhorer's interpretation of the Missa solemnis is a monument to the composer... but its marble is not always too cleanly carved.

DSO music director Jader Bignamini leads his ensemble in the glory of Beethoven’s Ninth, prefaced by a recent work written as a companion piece to the symphony.

Guth's intelligent production comes with a Karita Mattila masterclass and an outstanding cast, intense to the point of pain. 

“Go big or go home” could easily have been the motto of this summer’s festival. Muti didn’t just go big. He went huge. 

Barrie Kosky's stark, spare La bohème gave it a rare spark of humanity focused on Marina Costa-Jackson's haunting Mimì, whose existence became the central focus even when she wasn't singing.

Edward Gardner conducts a richly entertaining account of Berlioz's masterpiece in Birmingham

Turkish-Italian director Ferzan Ozpetek stages this new production of Madama Butterfly at Teatro San Carlo in Naples with a fine, penetrating approach.

A trusty and convincing version of the masterpiece, with a cast of well-matched singers.

Apparently, the composer himself was a notorious cheater, we can assume that some of the unsavoury themes of his 1904 opera “Madame Butterfly” were close to the bone.

A production which did not make a strong impression in Naples, despite a first rate cast. 

Damiano Michieletto’s intriguing production of Rigoletto is set in a mental hospital, and sidelines emotion in favour of analysis. The singing, on the other hand, is heartfelt and exciting.

This production at the San Carlo was an excellent, emotional Lucia di Lammermoor, welcomed with empathy by the audience, like an old companion. 

It's the libretto's equivocation that has denied King Roger the frequency of performance that its music deserves.

The Chicago Symphony and Riccardo Muti celebrate Shakespeare's Anniversary.

In Vienna State Opera's new production of Rigoletto, director Pierre Audi brings us close to a Rigoletto less freakish, more identifiably everyday. 

Kasper Holten’s production does an impressive job of exploring the concepts of Szymanowski's Król Roger – perhaps more psychologically than philosophically. It’s a production well worth exploring.

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.

In the last few decades, Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi has flirted with standard repertory status, but it has not sufficiently won the hearts of opera-goers to warrant more than the occasional production. Though blessed with some of the composer’s finest melodies, the opera has problems for modern audiences.

Deborah Warner’s new production of La Traviata for the Wiener Festwochen is dotted with dramatic ideas to much the same extent as flowers are strewn and champagne is uncorked in the Act I ‘Brindisi’ (drinking song), which is to say sparingly.

Iolanta and Francesca da Rimini work particularly well as a double bill because both works share the theme of lovers who find themselves at the mercy of possessive forces. Iolanta's domineering father ultimately yields in Tchaikovsky's opera, but in Rachmaninov's the deceitful Lanceotto is not so accommodating.

On Thursday night the DC opera fans gathered at the Washington National Opera for the opening night of David Alden’s production of Donizetti’s timeless tale of love and horror, Lucia di Lammermoor. It soon became obvious that the production presented to us was not the most conservative one.