Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews

English Touring Opera's triple bill of early Baroque miniatures promised an intruiging evening but failed up to expectations. 

La Fenice presents Rossini’s monumental farewell to Italy and to 18th-century tradition in Ligorio’s elegant new production with a superb cast.

Powerful and impressive playing from the LSO and Jaime Martín in a Spanish-themed first half (also featuring Christian Tetzlaff), with a more nuanced array of Stravinskian colour in the second half.

Mercadante's score proves to be something of a missing link between bel canto and early Verdi. 

A rare concerto and a familiar choral work anchor a Virginia Symphony concert that celebrates the French musical spirit.

Dinner at Eight, William Bolcom and librettist Mark Campbell's 2017 opera, had its European première at Wexford Festival Opera on Saturday under conductor David Agler. The opera is based on the 1932 play by George S Kaufman and Edna Ferber, in turn adapted into a movie by George Cukor (1933).

After appearances in London and New York, Phelim McDermott's bold and imaginative production of Philip Glass’ Satyagraha arrives in Los Angeles.

Opening their season’s residency in their London home with the theme of “German Romantics”, Wigmore Hall was plunged into an autumnal glow.

Diego Fasolis leads a period performance of Mozart’s early masterpiece with a strong cast and a clever production.

Sydney Dance Company's contrasting double bill revisits Rafael Bonachela's elegantly reflective Frame of Mind and premieres Antony Hamilton's bemusing and rave-inspired Forever & Ever.

The unlikely pairing of jazz and Baroque makes complete sense under the baton of Sam Poppleton. 

British cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason gave the impression that he had been playing the cello since he was in the womb

Six concerts of Suffolk’s finest home-grown produce garnished with side orders of Mozart, Copland and Elgar.

For his new production of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor in Basel, director Olivier Py underscored an emotive kaleidoscope of events with unparalleled creativity and imagination. 

A terrifically strong cast gives a fine rendition of two lesser heard operas: Giordano's Mala vita Leoni's L'oracolo.

New conductor Sofi Jeannin delights with her fresh thinking on choral concerts.

Alondra de la Parra breathes new life into Russian classics

Levit transfigured one more time the musical material in a sort of new, life-affirming way. 

Performing both works for the first time, the RCO capered crisply through Shostakovich’s Suite from The Nose and played sumptuously in Weill’s The Seven Deadly Sins, with captivating songstress Wende.

John Harbison's 80th birthday in December was marked at the start of Ken-David Masur's colorful program with the Boston Symphony. 

More relevant than ever, the patriarchal nightmare of Verdi's Rigoletto is dark and unflinching in Scottish Opera's revival of their 2011 production, with some striking scenes and fine singing.

Paavo Järvi and the Berlin Philharmonic in excellent renditions of seminal works of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Christian Spuck, Zurich’s ballet director has crafted a new version of Hans Zender’s adaptation of Die Winterreise

On reaching the second instalment of his Brahms cycle, Vasily Petrenko brings a fresh breath of alpine air to Liverpool, while George Li impresses in Rachmaninov’s ever popular Second Piano Concerto.

Gustavo Gimeno conducts a program anchored by Scheherazade as well as a cello concerto by Ginastera, featuring Cleveland Orchestra principal Mark Kosower.

Immersive, direct and passionate Bach from English Touring Opera and the Old Street Band.

Three works written in the turbulent years after the end of World War 2 were featured in this dynamic concert with the BBCSO under the baton of Sakari Oramo.

Osborn absolutely lives the part; he negotiated formidable heights, intricate passage work and the sheer volume of notes with style and clarity as well as colour and nuance. 

Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake was controversial twenty-three years ago. These days it seems pretty tame - but the swans aren't!

Vladimir Ashkenazy conducts the Southbank Chamber orchestra in a programme dedicated to the interpretation of classical dance forms.

Julius Drake’s torrential postlude capped an evening in which he had been superb throughout.

An epic night at the opera with Joyce DiDonato, which will be hard to forget.

Fail to inject the composer's cathedral-sized symphonic structures with a sense of rapt wonder and they can sound dull.

Jun Märkl excels in an all-French program entitled “Vive la France”. 

Xian Zhang brought out the beauty of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s engaging sound and soprano Fatma Said gracefully beguiled us with Strauss.

Hamburg's revival of a 2015 production is a musical success, but the director's concepts are sometimes too dense to tell a straightforward story.

Thomas Søndergård and the RSNO with a beguiling performance of Ravel’s Schéhérazade from Catriona Morison, vivid Peer Gynt from Grieg and a vibrant Rachmaninov’s First Symphony

In her anxiety to be ‘new’, Shaw slaps a sackload of semi-comprehensible ideas onto a sort-of present day update.

Manchester's BBC Philharmonic packs a punch in an evening of orchestral greats.

A triumphant world première of Septime Webre's Wizard of Oz in Kansas City. 

Joshua Bloom and Paula Murrihy excel in Irish National Opera's staging of Bartók's opera, although director Enda Walsh takes too many liberties with the libretto. 

An emotionally intense Violetta from Mané Galoyan in Tom Cairns' darkly challenging La traviata launches Glyndebourne Tour's 50th season

NDT 2’s 'microcosm' is on display at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele with a mixed bill of four works created for these young talents

Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra – premiered by the BSO under Serge Koussevitzky and a familiar calling card ever since – opens the new season.

Edward Gardner opens the Hallé's Thursday series with dramatic Strauss and Janáček.

Porgy and Bess isn’t a perfect opera, but English National Opera's new production is a strong one. 

I puritani returns to Barcelona’s Liceu with Annilese Miskimmon’s production. Javier Camerena and Pretty Yende lead the inauguration of the season with a fine example of romantic bel canto.

A forward-looking celebration of the past twenty years' of dance at Sadler's Wells, presenting the work of three emerging choreographers.

Gianandrea Noseda conducts the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Netherlands Radio Choir and an ideal team of soloists in a memorable performance of Britten's War Requiem.

Mahler's Resurrection Symphony provides both a thrilling opener and apt metaphor for the orchestra's new era under Chief Conductor Semyon Bychkov.