Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | English | Nikolay Borchev

In a concert performance at the Berlin Philharmonie, conductor René Jacobs gives his own – thrilling – take on Monteverdi's L'Orfeo.

There is magic aplenty in director Stefan Herheim’s bold recontextualization of Gian Carlo Menotti's holiday opera. 

The final day of Oxford Lieder's 80-event festival was framed by two recitals taking us from the world of German folklore andDes Knaben Wunderhorn, to the pain and drama of romantic entanglements. 

Herheim pulls us in unexpected directions, makes us laugh and makes us think as we enjoy fine Rossinian music and singing in Opéra de Lyon's production.

Though straightforward in concept, Oper Köln's production of the one-act opera written in the Theresienstadt concentration camp brought the opera's profound themes to the surface in an excellently sung performance.

Barrie Kosky’s clever direction enlivens a Strauss rarity at the Bayerische Staatsoper but the minimalist stage setting sinks HMS Schweigsame Frau.

Where to place Wagner’s first opera Die Feen? Not a typical comedy, but it’s also not a tragedy. Oper Leipzig's powerful production is one to fall in love with. 

An opera that pokes fun at opera seria? An opera that features backstage preparations for a show, followed by an opera within an opera? No, it’s not Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos. 

Jane Archibald and Ruxandra Donose provide a compelling prologue to Ariadne auf Naxos, while Karita Mattila's majestic performance lights up the opera seria second half.

There's much to recommend this Turco, including stunning vocal fireworks by Olga Peretyatko and moments of comedic gold in the staging. But this production also reinforces some ugly racial and gender stereotypes.

Shadow puppet serpents and policemen in tutus: Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier's production of Die Zauberflöte is graced with a strong cast. 

Béatrice et Bénédict is Hector Berlioz’s last work; he wrote it between 1860 and 1862 for the theatre that patron Edouard Bénazet had built in Baden-Baden, then Germany’s most chic health resort.

Shortly after Rossini's success with The Barber of Seville came La Cenerentola, a reworking of the Cinderella fairy tale, but with a little less magic, and a lot more worldly comedy. It was an instant success and further established the 25-year-old Rossini as one of the greatest Italian opera composers of his day.

Carmen is one of the most frequently performed operas in the world, and with such a variety of interpretations out there it is always difficult to come up with a new one which is simultaneously inventive and effective.