Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Vladimir Stoyanov

The New National Theatre in Tokyo revives its traditionalist Rigoletto, featuring Vladimir Stoyanov as the cursed court jester, Eri Nakamura as Gilda and Lawrence Brownlee debuting as the Duke of Mantua.

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

Francisco Negrín gives his singers little help in a dark, boxy new staging, put together at frantic, last minute speed. 

A mixed-bag of an evening at the Sydney Opera House, with a production of Ernani imported from La Scala failing to solve the inherent challenges of the work, despite good performances from the cast.

Here was the much-loved three-act opera Rigoletto, yes, but chances are, it was one far beyond Verdi’s wildest dreams.

Zubin Mehta conducts Verdi's Otello in an iconic Robert Wilson production of stylized theater where less is more. The effect was mesmerizing.  

Herheim places the composer at the centre of his opera in a staging that's clever and erudite but somewhat cold; musical performances are mixed.

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.

A suggestive staging barely supported by the musical side

The role of the outsider struck a chord with Tchaikovsky, whose homosexuality alienated him from society. Stefan Herheim takes that identification as the central idea in his remarkable new production at Dutch National Opera.

The unclear ideas and the excessive blackness in Thalheimer’s concept failed to convince, but Stoyanov and Joel’s presentation of Verdi’s score made up for those problems.

In his production of La traviata for the Swedish Royal Opera, Kasper Holten puts Violetta in a strip club and on the streets. Both the staging and the music are excellent, though the cast's acting is uneven.

Jorge de León, en el rol titular, dominó la escena en el segundo reparto de la producción de Otello que abre la temporada del Real.

Puccinis Commedia lirica erscheint in Zürich als Schweizerische Erstaufführung. Ermonela Jaho ist eine fabelhafte Hauptdarstellerin, Christof Loy bietet eine schlüssige Inszenierung und Marco Armiliato lässt Italianità vom Feinsten erklingen. 

L'œuvre pleine d'humour de Verdi est bien servie par une mise en scène originale et efficace, un orchestre investi et une distribution de haute tenue.

L'Opéra de Nice a fait face à sa malédiction en programmant l'opéra de Donizetti, non sans quelques frayeurs... Mais les inattendus Vladimir Stoyanov et Zach Borichevsky ont sauvé la production.