Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | English | Riccardo Zanellato

Boccanegra butchered in Parma? Only in the sense that director Valentina Carrasca sets the opera in an abattoir... 

A Verdi Festival account where the orchestral detail registers with true distinction and the singing impresses. 

Alex Ollé focuses in the princess's trauma to provide a back story for Puccini’s problematic last opera; Eri Nakamura captivates the New National Theatre audience.

Peter Konwitschny's production strips away much of the religious symbolism, presenting the difference between Jews and Christians as little more than the dyed colour of their hands. 

Traditionally, Italy's most unforgiving loggionisti are reputed to reside at Parma's Teatro Regio. Thankfully for the cast, they appear to be a dying breed.

Muti unlocks the immense dramatic potential of Verdi's revolutionary score, providing a wealth of colour and detail capable of conjuring mysterious Shakespearean worlds with no need for staging.

A sizeable contingent of curious musicologists and critics gathered for the Milan première. It was a gifted a performance with plenty of insights to offer.

For the final week of the CSO season, Muti led a stirring program of operatic excerpts by Verdi, Puccini and Mascagni, along with a rarity by Boito.

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

Thanks to Wilson, to an orchestra in great shape, and to an excellent cast, this production was a success. Everybody did his best in the orchestra and in the chorus, without disregarding the soring passages of the score.

Roberto De Simone's staging evokes a fabulous out-of-time China, and perfectly accompanies the majesty of Puccini’s last and unfinished opera. De Simone chooses to stop the opera at the point of Puccini's death, without Franco Alfano's finale.