Powerful minimalism: Owen Wingrave launches Aldeburgh Festival

Queen of Spades began life as a sharp little ghost story by Alexander Pushkin, quite different in tone and spirit from the melodramatic adaptation by Modest Tchaikovsky, who wrote the libretto for his composer brother.

The Hallé Orchestra, led by Sir Mark Elder, followed their award-winning 2009 Götterdämmerung with a concert performance of Die Walküre over two nights, prefaced by Gerard McBurney’s new work, The Madness of an Extraordinary Plan. With an array of famed soloists, Elder masterminded a triumph, with the magnificent Hallé showing their quality on the concert stage.

Wagner's Die Walküre was split into two concert performances over two days, the first on one evening and the second on an afternoon and an evening. This review is for both. A spot picks out a man in the Bridgewater Hall’s front row, who steps up to stand by a table in front of the Hallé Orchestra, which is ready to begin. He puts on a braided coat to become Richard Wagner.

Actualizar una zarzuela puede ser como jugar con fuego, pero Marina Bollaín regatea las dificultades y capitanea un equipo que convence musical, visual y teatralmente.

Sofía Esparza y Airam Hernández defienden brillantemente la ópera de Gounod, en la producción de Ópera de Tenerife, con una cuidada dirección escénica de André Heller-Lopes.

Enmarcada entre suburbios y fronteras, Asmik Gregorian logra triunfar en su rol protagonista, sin poder salvar a su personaje, ahogada por la agresividad y provocación escénica.