Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | English | Martin Duncan

Theater Bonn successfully tackles Kiss Me, Kate in an appropriately light production.

John Wilson was constantly persuading the orchestra to dig deep and to unearth the riches and miracles in the orchestral writing.

Dove's infectious score nods to Copland, Bernstein and Britten and its tongue-twisting ensembles and high-wire vocal writing were wonderfully performed. 

Garsington's latest Rossini buffa is on the nail orchestrally, mixed vocally and one of the best pieces of acting and stage movement you'll see in opera.

“Folies Bergère does Greek gods” is how director Martin Duncan describes Offenbach's Orphée aux enfers, and his production for Royal Academy Opera is enormous fun. 

Two short works by Harrison Birtwistle put forward interesting views of classical themes: the psychologically involved The Corridor and a dynamic new vision of Medea, The Cure. 

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.

Vert-Vert, undoubtedly the only opera named after a dead parrot, is a very, very silly opera – more a series of comic sketches than an integrated work. But in Garsington's production, everything delights.

The impressively well-drilled children’s chorus dominates this glittering production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the second component of Opera North’s Festival of Britten. 20 young performers in white, black wings on their fairy shoulders, wind solemnly in and out of the action, assemble in rows, perform versions of callisthenics exercises, and sing beautifully.

When choosing a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta to be performed at the Proms in a year firmly branded as "London 2012", The Yeomen of the Guard had obvious appeal, being set in one of the capital's most famous landmarks, and giving the opportunity, even in semi-staged form, to deck the hall with Beefeater uniforms.

La Forza del Destino isn't performed nearly as often as Verdi's most popular works: this year's production at Opera Holland Park is the first time it's been staged in the UK for several years.