Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | English | Beate Vollack

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

Herheim’s maiden voyage in his new capacity as Intendant confirms his ability to deftly negotiate a less-than-straightforward work with care and ambition and add his own voice enthusiastically to the mix.

The Baden-Baden Easter Festival offers a memorable production of Pique Dame with excellent musical performances convincing in Leiser and Caurier's updating of the plot.

Welsh National Opera’s new season commemorating the centenary of the 1917 Revolution with three Russian-themed works opens with both a bang and a whimper with this trenchant revival.

That both the lead and a second key role were ill and couldn’t sing did not bode well, yet this performance of Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera shook up the house nonetheless.

Rudolf Frey's production of Nabucco for Welsh National Opera undercuts the solemnity and beauty of the opera, detracting from some fine performances.