Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Andrew Haji

The Toronto Symphony kicks off the 2025-26 season with an intriguing and exciting double bill of the very new and the very familiar. 

Principal Conductor Bernard Labadie leads the Orchestra of St Luke’s in a superbly sung and played performance of Bach’s fiery and dramatic St John Passion. 

Excellent singing, dramatic sets and jolly music make this a rewarding revival of a long-forgotten opera, Herculanum by David. 

The children's Barber of Seville is too severely cut to have any substance, but fabulous playing and conducting, stellar young soloists, and an imaginative staging make it a fun afternoon.

Limpidité, modération, expressivité : c’est à cette trinité de principes qu'a semblé se vouer le chef, à la tête d'une très belle interprétation de l'oratorio de Haydn à Montréal.

Wie üblich beendete eine weiter konzertante Oper den Opernreigen der diesjährigen Salzburger Festspiele und in diesem Jahr war dabei Donizettis Attentäter-Drama Lucrezia Borgia zu erleben. Der Belcanto-Klassiker begeisterte mit mitreißenden Melodien und hervorragenden Solisten.