Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Tuomas Pursio

Finnish National Opera and Ballet’s season opens with an earthy new production of Verdi's perennial favourite, Aida, given a contemporary setting where even the victors suffer. 

Christof Loy’s psychological staging returns to the stage of Finnish National Opera, with Swedish soprano Elisabet Strid compelling in the title role. 

Christof Loy unearths hidden treasure with an opera by Franz Schreker long since buried after taking Europe by storm in the 1920s.

A new production of Lohengrin at Oper Leipzig is conceived as an intimate chamber opera and succeeds with brilliant musical performances.

For any opera house, the production of a new Wagner Ring cycle is a huge undertaking and becomes a mission statement. For Finnish National Opera, its mission is to stage an all-Finnish Ring.

In an unusually convincing concert performance, Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Finnish National Opera emphasised the lyrical aspects of Wagner's Das Rheingold.

Carè, Stundytė and Pursio all shine as singers and actors in an intense, exciting production at the Finnish National Opera.

Auguin conducted as if he really believes in this evergreen work, which was wonderful to hear in the composer’s rather overlooked anniversary year.

Despite some weakness in the main singers, the overall level of musical performances was consistently high in Leipzig, with a stark and effective production.

Oper Leipzig's Das Rheingold unfolds with no set changes, giving Wagner's music plenty of opportunities to fuel the imagination.

In a state of almost child-like transfiguration and fulfilment, Strid's voice fully encompassed the extremes of the last scene.

Christian von Götz's production doesn't all work, but he makes a viable, thought-provoking and entertaining show out of Weber's spooky classic.

Oper Leipzig's co-production with Bayreuth Festspiele pulls off a delightful take on Wagner's Das Liebesverbot. With excellent vocals, the Gewandhaus Orchestra, and great wit, Wagner's comedy comes highly recommended.

For an inventive production, fine singing and magnificent orchestral playing, this new Leipzig Die Frau ohne Schatten deserves every success.

Leipzig routinely honours its native son with performances of Parsifal scheduled on and around Good Friday, which tempts a state of ritualized enactment best confined to the opera itself. (Vienna maintains the same tradition and is a magnet for self-appointed enforcers of the Bayreuth applause customs and their confrontational silencing of the ‘transgressors’.

La nouvelle création de Kaija Saariaho est une grande œuvre musicale mal servie cependant par une mise en scène façon Netflix de Simon Stone.

Elisabet Strid schockiert, verzaubert und begeistert als Salome. Wahnsinn in all seinen Formen!

Eine grandiose Inszenierung bietet das Liebesverbot an der Oper Leipzig und ist eine Reise wert.