Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Daniele Rustioni

Daniele Rustioni pairs orchestral music of Verdi and Wagner in his concert with the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, prior to taking up the post of Guest Principal Conductor in April.

Daniele Rustioni leads the Pittsburgh Symphony in music inspired by Ancient Greece, flanking Kirill Gerstein’s take on Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto that restores the composer’s original intentions.

Gustav Holst's perennial audience favorite provides pure comfort food, paired here with Ravel and an organ rarity by Alfredo Casella.

Joshua Bell brings intimacy and precision to his Philharmonic performance of Dvořák’s Violin Concerto. 

Francesca Dego's dazzling performance of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto shares the stage with erotic Liszt and vivid Schubert. 

Carolin Widmann and the Hallé give a special performance of Mendelssohn's ever-popular Violin Concerto, plus fine Liszt and Strauss from conductor Daniele Rustioni. 

Daniele Rustioni conducts a programme of orchestral favourites and a concerto rarity featuring cellist Alban Gerhardt.

Michael Volle headlines a deluxe revival of Verdi's Falstaff in this revival of Robert Carsen's popular production. 

Daniele Rustioni also conducts the Hallé in a gripping account of Sibelius'  atmospheric Lemminkäinen Suite.

Soprano Louise Alder explored the dying embers of the Romantic movement in a sensitive performance of Vier letzte Lieder.

The Royal Opera's revival of Keith Warner's staging feels underbaked, although interest is largely focused on the pit as the latest contender to take over from Antonio Pappano as Music Director is auditioned.

From the streets of New York to America’s southern states, Daniele Rustioni with the Ulster Orchestra present an all American evening, with some fine playing. 

Billed as “A Postcard from Italy”, Daniele Rustioni’s innovative vision sees a programme focused on a generation of 20th-century Italian composers, with formidable results. 

Two highly complementary works by Strauss and Mahler bring a satisfying evening of beautifully executed music-making between the Ulster Orchestra and their chief conductor. 

Verdi's Rigoletto in Weimar Germany? A half-baked concept, but Bartlett Sher's new production is certainly dramatic and it is gorgeously sung. 

The Italian soprano produces enormous power and great sensitivity in equal measure to illuminate a memorable Verdi Macbeth.

In a programme of Lyadov, Korngold and Rachmaninov, the Ulster Orchestra’s Chief Conductor brings an evening of music that wouldn’t sound out of place on the silver screen.  

A highly successful Falstaff at the Archevêché in Aix-en-Provence, for our greater pleasure: a true lesson in joy in a world where, we are told, all is but a joke.

Its premiere postponed from Festival d'Aix last summer, Barrie Kosky's staging of Rimsky-Korsakov's political satire finally takes place in Lyon. 

Taking a very different approach to programming for Valentine’s Day, Daniele Rustioni attracts a full-house to the Ulster Hall with Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky. Francesca Dego is outstanding in Shostakovich’s First Violin Concerto.

At Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam, Laurent Pelly stages Cenenrentola as a pink daydream.

From the trials in love of a libertine, through the death of an angel, to the rise of an emperor, Rustioni takes charge of a rollercoaster evening of emotional turbulence.

In his inaugural concert at the helm of the Ulster Orchestra, Rustioni starts the new season with vigour in a charged evening of musical excitement.

Comedy fails to spark in Laurent Pelly's new production of Falstaff at the Teatro Real. 

The Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla in a compelling performance of Mozart's overture to Don Giovanni and Strauss's Don Juan, with soloist Francesca Dego bringing to life Mozart’s Violin Concerto no. 4 in D major.

A dynamic Italian pairing provides warmth in Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, part of a trio of Russian works. 

The Ulster Orchestra present a programme of classical elegance and sunshine; Rustioni is joined by Francesca Dego in an exceptionally sophisticated performance of Mozart’s Violin Concerto no. 3. 

The BBC Symphony Orchestra was on tip-top form, with the buoyant Daniele Rustioni and mandolin virtuoso Avi Avital conjuring up a fresco of genuine Mediterranean delights.

A (nearly) complete performance of the original French version of Don Carlos forms the centrepiece of Daniele Rustioni's Verdi Festival in Lyon. 

In Lyon, Daniele Rustioni drives through a pulsating reading of Macbeth, Ivo van Hove's imaginative setting not always fully backed by the vocal performances.

Rustioni and NSO gave a passionate rendition of Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony while Russian pianist Toradze performed cracking Shostakovich. 

Apparently, the composer himself was a notorious cheater, we can assume that some of the unsavoury themes of his 1904 opera “Madame Butterfly” were close to the bone.

The young tenor Maxim Mironov, who played the poet Giocondo, was the name on everyone's lips by the end of the show. His voice is a modestly-sized and soft-grained, but it is beautifully produced, and focuses to a laser-like point up top.

Stunning musicianship and passionate commitment gave two repertoire works a new lease of life. 

The Metropolitan Opera’s now 29-year old production of Aida is still standing and still looking good. Gianni Quaranta’s gigantic sets – floor-to-sky-statuary, regal-looking staircases, a couple of horses, wise/exciting use of the stage elevator to change scenes (causing, unfortunately, a glitch the other night which delayed the final scene for a few minutes), costumes (by Dada Saligeri) mostly of

Richard Eyre's uncomplicated production remains as watchable as ever; Joyce El-Khoury makes a promising Covent Garden debut.

A youthful Bellini opera able to stand on its own two feet? Perhaps not, as Adelson e Salvini gets the Opera Rara treatment. 

Theatre director Christoph Marthaler is renowned – if notorious – for his “off the wall” productions and adherence to bad boy antics. This Viaggio was no exception.

A very good production of Luisa Miller by the Teatro San Carlo, set in Naples itself.

In San Carlo's Luisa Miller, top notch performances from Luciano Ganci and Elena Moşuc lead a concert performance which show what a great and underperformed work this is.

Alden’s mise-en-scène developed the most modern aspects of Il turco's libretto. The stage not only showed what the Poet was participating towards, but the other characters also seemed to perform the poet’s conception of his own work. 

A fantastic concert with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the charismatic Daniele Rustioni, with violinist Tasmin Little in Mendelssohn. 

This dark production of La traviata may have obscured some of the more romantic elements of Verdi’s drama, but the music had all of the vitality to match La Fenice's sparkle.

While still a charming production, a touch more warmth and bel canto style are yet required to bring some authentic Italian sunshine to L'elisir d'amore in Bow Street this November.

The title role of Bellini’s Norma is one of the most challenging roles in the female repertory. It has been called the most profound portrayal of womanhood in all of opera. It demands a dramatic coloratura soprano with immense vocal power, rare agility, a wide dynamic range, a broad palette of vocal coloration, and instinctive theatricality.

The Tenth Anniversary of the Royal Opera House’s Jette Parker Young Artists Scheme is a landmark of no small size. This summer performance brought back some of the best singers it has produced for a semi-staged rendition of Rossini’s one-act 1825 opera Il Viaggio a Reims. It was a celebratory display of virtuoso held together with a generous dose of self-indulgence.

When Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly premiered at La Scala in 1904, it was heavily booed. Few who attended that disastrous first performance could have imagined that, more than one hundred years on, it would have evolved into one of the most enduringly popular and widely performed operas in the world.

Attendees of last night's Aida may have been concerned that they would be seeing a stand-in soprano, with the Ukranian Liudmyla Monastyrska making her Covent Garden debut. They needn't have worried. Monastyrska gave a world class performance with great vocal control and huge power.