Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | English | Rebecca Nelsen

Omer Meir Wellber’s Mozart-Ullmann mash-up sounds like a terrible idea, but absolutely hits the mark. 

Movement was so effectively utilised in this production, with elements of ballet, modern and Scottish folk melded in true Agnes de Mille fashion.

David McVicar's production is visually stylish, superbly acted and the attention to detail is pervasive. Show-stealing acting from Franck Saurel's Selim and a fine Osmin from Clive Bayley help make this a memorable evening's opera.

The cast performs on flying, technicolor sofas in this colorful rendition of Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail. In an unusual revision of the text, we are guided through the opera by a narrator and backdrop artist.

Jaquino dons the coat of the ousted Pizarro in this Volksoper production of Fidelio, clearly indicating that just as one evil head has been (literally) cut off, another is growing in its place… 

Those who feel that country house opera is in some way not the real thing, just an excuse to dress up and picnic on manicured lawns, should hie to Garsington’s new Die Entführung aus dem Serail with all speed.

When Cleveland Orchestra music director Franz Welser-Möst had to bow out of this past weekend’s performances of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana due to a recent back injury, the orchestra’s talented young assistant conductor, James Feddeck, inherited a high-profile assignment. The set of four concerts had been heavily promoted and were sold out.