Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Donizetti

With unbridled imagination, Michieletto fills this usually-problematic space with a wealth of racy detail.

Dismembered after the 1840 bankruptcy of its promoter, Opera Rara's decade-long reconstruction has resulted in a beautifully constructed opera that's enjoyable throughout.

With her signature role’s coloratura fireworks and dramatic nuance, Jessica Pratt’s Sydney Opera House debut is one to remember.

Javier Camarena’s debut as Edgardo contributed to a triumphal night at the Teatro Real together with Lisette Oropesa’s charismatic Lucia and David Alden’s powerful staging.

Charming and hilarious by turn, this production fields a largely young and Kiwi cast.

Juan Diego Flórez and Venera Gimadieva charm as the young unlucky couple, and convince with their vocal performances in Wysocka’s production at the Bayerische Staatsoper.

Gaetano Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda is perhaps most famous for a single and highly emotional scene in which two monarchs engage in a venomous confrontation. One is doomed to die. 

Director Davide Livermore sets the story at the time of the Dolce Vita, including the motorbike from the film Roman Holiday and the roadster from The Easy Life.

Absent from theatres for more than a century and a half, Donizetti's comedy about Tsar Peter the Great is revived in the composer's home town.

Jamie Barton stole the show in a lacklustre concert performance in Madrid.

Issues that cropped up in the first run of Mitchell's production have been ironed out. In the hands of a strong cast, a chilling interpretation of Donizetti's masterpiece.

Odyssey Opera gives the US première of the original three-act version of L'assedio di Calais, with every note Donizetti wrote in 1836.

Don Pasquale is updated to 1950s Hollywood, delivering clever staging and slapstick humor while sacrificing none of Donizetti's musical artistry.

Clever casting combined with good singing, classy chorus work and quality ensemble music has produced an enjoyably entertaining Don Pasquale from State Opera of South Australia.

The Glimmerglass Festival in Cooperstown, New York always does themed seasons. This year the season was about the idea of home. As such, the production directed by Francesca Zambello was updated from the Middle Ages to a modern-day refugee camp.

Static blocking and an uneven cast can't kill a Lucia di Lammermoor with a star this bright.

Rare repertoire, polished orchestral playing, thrilling singing – it's no wonder London's operatic cognoscenti were out in force.

Lisette Oropesa gives a coloratura star turn; Renato Girolami and Andrey Zhilikhovsky give the buffo patter; Mariame Clément's staging focuses on the work’s dark side.

A thrilling finale to the 2017 Cardiff Singer of the World

It's typical that in the last concert in a series that has lasted seventeen years, we had a recital from a talented young singer with a growing reputation, a Rosenblatt classic.

This was meant to be Pretty Yende's night, but it was Armenian tenor Liparit Avetisyan who stole hearts as country bumpkin Nemorino. 

One might have hoped for a memorable performance of the work for its absolute première at the Carlo Felice. Instead, this was an experience to quickly forget.

Neither Sir Walter Scott nor Donizetti were well served by the farcical staging, but finally bellissimo bel canto prevailed over the production.

The charm of Gaetano Donizetti’s spirited two-act L’elisir d’amore lies in its mixture of sharp comedy and poignant pathos. Zurich gave us just that.

Ivan Magrì's exemplary technique and strong delivery in his London recital debut left his audience hoping for a return visit to the Rosenblatt series in the imminent future.

This production at the San Carlo was an excellent, emotional Lucia di Lammermoor, welcomed with empathy by the audience, like an old companion. 

In Donizetti's home town, a rare outing for one of the composer's long-forgotten operas. 

Klára Kolonits's marvellous Lucia is the only thing brightening the bleak performance of the Hungarian State Opera's new Lucia di Lammermoor.

Robert Longbottom's take on Donizetti's Daughter of the Regiment captures the spirit of bel canto in Washington DC. 

Time honoured tradition has it that the pianist in a song recital plays the supporting role, hence the slightly derogatory term “accompanist”. Someone forgot to share that script with Giuseppe Vaccaro.

A tour de force performance of Donizetti's infrequently heard Maria de Rudenz at Wexford Festival Opera. Gilda Fiume shines brightly as the eponymous heroine amidst a stellar cast. A must see. 

Scottish Opera’s boutique touring production of The Elixir of Love is a fun-filled delight. Fine singing, perfect comic timing, all to a score for just five players. It worked a treat.

Strong vocal talent rules the night, and a late moment of visual splendor caps off a serviceable reading of a battered warhorse.

Four star singers shine in Pelly's glamorous production of Don Pasquale, which brings out both the lightness and the darkness of the opera.

The 2016 Proms come to a riotous close at the Royal Albert Hall.

A new cast arrives for Katie Mitchell's gothic Lucia di Lammermoor – and, despite caveats about the staging, deliver some excellent performances. 

Javier Camarena gave a thrilling performance in the penultimate Rosenblatt Recital.

“Prepare to be shocked!” was the warning issued before this new Lucia di Lammermoor from Katie Mitchell at the Royal Opera House. Shocking? Yes, but in a good way. 

Flórez's recital showed exactly why singers should steer clear of technological assistance. 

Sondra Radvanovsky tackles another Donizetti queen - Elisabetta in Roberto Devereux - at The Met. 

Singing at short notice, Luis Gomes made a fine partner for Ekaterina Siurina at another superb recital in the Rosenblatt Recital series.

At the Theatre Royal Stratford East, the student group made a convincing case for the French version of this gripping work.

A revival of Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore at the Met, where Vittorio Grigolo's Nemorino happily ignores most of Bartless Sher's subtexts. 

Donizetti's back catalogue proves just as rich as his well-loved works, with this blisteringly good foray into an extraordinary opera whose UK premiere is 179 undeserved years late. 

The thrills of Tudor (pseudo-)history and bel canto expressivity combine in the second of Donizetti's “Three Queens” operas, Maria Stuarda, making its company debut at Seattle Opera.

Led by phenomenal performances by tenor Javier Camarena and his superb colleagues, Met's Don Pasquale was a joyous occasion to celebrate Donizetti's late Opera Buffa.

Opera North's revival of L'elisir d'amour directed by Daniel Slater at the Grand Theatre, Leeds, still bubbles with life, in spite of its age.

A brilliant revival of Donizetti's Maria Stuarda at The Met centres on the dramatic confrontation between Queen Elizabeth I and Mary Stuart at Fotheringhay. 

In Donizetti’s most popular comic opera, the great mix of slapstick buffa and an obtuse venue make up the stuffs of what audiences continue to love. 

At the Barbican, Cecilia Bartoli and Rolando Villazón entertained a festive audience in a concert of bel canto highlights, determined not to let a cold put a chill on the evening.