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Even locked behind a music stand, like a caged panther in a sleek black gown, Grigorian’s Salome bristles with dramatic energy in Barbican concert performance of Strauss’ “scherzo with a fatal conclusion”. 

Galina Cheplakova steps in for Sonya Yoncheva in the penultimate performance of this revival, winning over the audience with vocal clarity and dramatic commitment. 

A memorable, impassioned performance of Arnold Schoenberg’s Gurre-Lieder in Disney Hall. 

Notwithstanding director Pippo Delbono's narcissistic excesses, his staging confirmed itself as effective and penetrating.

The Russian director's role play production of Prokofiev's comedy falls flat at the Staatsoper.

Andris Nelsons leads a moving performance of Dvořák’s Stabat Mater with the Boston Symphony and Tanglewood Festival Chorus. 

The Boston Symphony Orchestra led by Andris Nelsons performs Boulanger, Debussy and Puccini. 

You feel you ought not to approve of such directorial extravagance, but catch yourself being drawn into the grand pageant. 

In a disappointing revival of Hugo de Ana's clichéd and clumsy production, Liudmyla Monastyrska and Violeta Urmana confronted each other with their superb vocal techniques and diverging styles.

James Levine brings masterful control to Mahler with the Staatskapelle in the Philharmonie.

Peter Sellars's much-travelled staging of Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex provided a powerful opening for the 15th Baltic Sea Festival under the festival's artistic director Esa-Pekka Salonen.

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

The Met’s revival of David McVicar’s year-old take on the perennial Verismo twins strikes out emotionally in Cavalleria rusticana but scores high in Pagliacci. Working on the same set by Rae Smith, flanked by the forbidding stone walls of the town church, Cavalleria is dark, dark, dark – the very picture of a poor, unhappy Sicilian hill town.

To celebrate its 50th birthday Dutch National Opera put on a festive tribute to the people that have made it the innovative and much-admired house it is today.

At the Dutch National Opera, director Àlex Ollé from La Fura dels Baus stages a dark and monochromatic Trovatore, in which the four stars shine.

Mario Martone's Cavalleria rusticana—Pagliacci returns to La Scala, with results that do not always convince. 

A great love story as well as a cultural and musical shock as it has been from the beginning, this performance of Tristan und Isolde in Naples was led by an inspired Zubin Metha.

La Fura dels Baus's production balances the familiar with modern detail in a clever staging that packs a real punch. The Arena enjoyed its centennial edition last year, and one wonders whether this might be the production that they celebrate the next time around.

Video artist Bill Viola fills Tristan und Isolde with mesmerising images. Peter Sellars stages and Marc Piollet conducts a cast where King Marke reigns, at the Teatro Real in Madrid.

Verdi’s Don Carlo – the four-act Italian version – at the Deutsche Oper combines strong singing and acting with lush music in an evening that, despite its beauty, is not without its faults.

When most of us feel like we’re getting a little stale with a piece of work we’re doing – when the thoughts, words or ideas are drying up – we stop for a coffee, stretch our legs, or do a bit of internet browsing. When Richard Wagner realised inspiration was running low for Siegfried, he decided to have a break from it too.

​In each case, you know the murder is coming. In each case the music is explosive and closes the opera: there is nothing left to say except Canio's simple words: "La commedia è finita.

The Strauss opera Ariadne auf Naxos was inspired by the Moliere play The Middle-Class Gentleman. The richest man in Vienna has arranged for two entertainments--one a serious opera composed by a young man just for the occasion, and the other an Italian comedy group. He decides at the last minute to combine the two into one entertainment. If he were a proper gentleman, he would know better.

Tumblers and fire jugglers in rainbow colors. Singing nymphs soaring for stories into the air. Arias deeply dramatic and broadly comic. The Metropolitan Opera’s interpretation of Ariadne auf Naxos by Richard Strauss is a magical mashup of modern and classic, seria and buffa, technique and technology that pleases but falls short of terrific for this reviewer.

Read our review of Gianni Quaranta's production of Verdi­'s Aida in its 2009 broadcast from the Met Opera in New York.