Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | English | Catherine Carby

Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s Habsburg history lesson comes with a cast list as long as your arm, but the plots and intrigues ensure a gripping evening at the ballet.

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London

06 Oct 2022

Sex, scandal and Sisi: Mayerling opens Royal Ballet season

By Mark Pullinger

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Hereford

Turmoil and enormity: Dvořák’s Requiem at Hereford Cathedral

By Simon Cummings, 23 July 2022

The Three Choirs Festival opens with a performance of Dvořák’s Requiem characterised by extremes of melancholy and hope.

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Hereford

24 Jul 2022

Turmoil and enormity: Dvořák’s Requiem at Hereford Cathedral

By Simon Cummings

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Buxton

La donna del lago in Buxton: glorious music, fine singing, confusing production

By Peter Connors, 15 July 2022

Buxton International Festival presents Rossini's exhilarating La donna del lago with fine singing, but it is undermined by Jacopo Spirei's staging.

***11

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***11

Buxton

17 Jul 2022

La donna del lago in Buxton: glorious music, confusing production

By Peter Connors

London

Aleksandra Kurzak impresses in latest Covent Garden Traviata revival

By Mark Pullinger, 14 March 2020

In its 25th anniversary season, Richard Eyre's production continues to attract the world's great sopranos to the role of Violetta, the latest being Aleksandra Kurzak.

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London

15 Mar 2020

Aleksandra Kurzak impresses in latest Covent Garden Traviata revival

By Mark Pullinger

London

“Esultate!” Kunde's Otello impresses at Covent Garden

By Mark Pullinger, 09 December 2019

The American must be one of the few tenors to tackle both Rossini and Verdi's Moor with success.

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London

10 Dec 2019

“Esultate!” Kunde's Otello impresses at Covent Garden

By Mark Pullinger

Adelaide

A much anticipated amazing Girls Night Out in Adelaide

By Brian Angus, 09 August 2019

When two internationally acclaimed sopranos, two internationally acclaimed mezzos, a brilliant world-renowned conductor, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and the music of Richard Strauss align all the elements of a magnificent, thrilling evening have gelled.

*****

*****

Adelaide

10 Aug 2019

A much anticipated amazing Girls Night Out in Adelaide

By Brian Angus

Sydney

The return of Monteverdi: Pinchgut takes on Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria

By David Larkin, 13 June 2019

Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria is given the Pinchgut treatment, with an abstract staging complementing historically informed music-making under Erin Helyard.

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Sydney

16 Jun 2019

Pinchgut takes on Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria

By David Larkin

London

Here be monsters: a bracing new Idomeneo from English Touring Opera

By Benjamin Poore, 08 March 2019

A direct and expressive new production of one of Mozart's most adventurous operas enthrals at the Hackney Empire.

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London

10 Mar 2019

A bracing new Idomeneo from English Touring Opera

By Benjamin Poore

London

The Royal Ballet opens the new season with Mayerling

By Graham Watts, 08 October 2018

A new season for The Royal Ballet and a new star is "born" in this performance that highlights the company's strength in depth

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London

09 Oct 2018

The Royal Ballet opens the new season with Mayerling

By Graham Watts

London

Skelton and Anger set the scene for Stemme in Covent Garden's superb Walküre

By David Karlin, 26 September 2018

We start with a triumphant Royal Opera debut from Stuart Skelton, we close with Nina Stemme at her finest; a thrilling orchestral performance links the two. A memorable Walküre.

*****

*****

London

27 Sep 2018

Skelton and Anger set the scene for a superb Walküre

By David Karlin

London

Damp squibs prevent ETO's Rossini: Fireworks! from taking off

By Dominic Lowe, 22 February 2018

ETO's extracts from Rossini's serious operas at the Hackney Empire lacked spark and dynamism, but saw a fine showing from Elena Xanthoudakis and Catherine Carby.

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London

24 Feb 2018

Damp squibs prevent ETO's Rossini: Fireworks! from taking off

By Dominic Lowe

London

Monteverdi on a doughnut: A drab Return of Ulysses fails to thrill the Roundhouse

By David Karlin, 10 January 2018

A series of ill-advised staging choices leads to a disappointingly drab performance of Monteverdi's Homeric epic.

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**111

London

11 Jan 2018

Monteverdi on a doughnut: Ulysses fails to thrill

By David Karlin

London

Static but worth the slog: ETO's two-part Giulio Cesare

By Olivia Bell, 07 October 2017

Conway's decision to render Handel's epic in its entirety was let down by a static staging and unnecessary repeats that masked the hidden gem-like arias.

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London

09 Oct 2017

Static but worth the slog: ETO's Giulio Cesare

By Olivia Bell

London

A final outing for the Royal Opera's lavish but fusty Tales of Hoffmann

By Mark Pullinger, 07 November 2016

When an enormous black gondola creaks and shudders its way across the stage in the “Giulietta' act of the Royal Opera's Tales of Hoffmann, it acts as a metaphor for John Schlesinger's venerable production.

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London

08 Nov 2016

Final outing for the Royal Opera's fusty Hoffmann

By Mark Pullinger

London

A fun-filled La Calisto from English Touring Opera at the Hackney Empire

By Dominic Lowe, 14 October 2016

Clever staging and a high standard of acting does much to happily while away the three hours of this baroque opera in the second of ETO's Baroque extravaganza.

***11

***11

London

16 Oct 2016

A fun-filled La Calisto from ETO

By Dominic Lowe

Norwich

Kill or be killed: Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride, ETO

By Charlotte Valori, 23 March 2016

English Touring Opera gives Gluck's reformist masterpiece a suitably blood-spattered outing in a production which keeps the opera in touch with its classical roots.

***11

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Norwich

29 Mar 2016

Kill or be killed: Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride

By Charlotte Valori

London

Something old, something new: Donizetti's Pia de' Tolomei, English Touring Opera

By Charlotte Valori, 10 March 2016

Donizetti's back catalogue proves just as rich as his well-loved works, with this blisteringly good foray into an extraordinary opera whose UK premiere is 179 undeserved years late.

*****

*****

London

14 Mar 2016

Something old, something new: Donizetti's Pia de' Tolomei

By Charlotte Valori

London

Verismo before its time: Donizetti's Siege of Calais at English Touring Opera

By David Karlin, 07 March 2015

Written half a century before the verismo movement, Donizetti paints a true-to-life portrait of a besieged people which is genuinely touching. James Conway's straightforward production features some notable individual singers and an excellent performance by the chorus.

***11

***11

London

08 Mar 2015

Verismo before its time: Donizetti's Siege of Calais

By David Karlin