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The company’s latest Firebird is Isabella LaFreniere. She’s perfect for the role. LaFreniere is tall, commanding, magisterial, with unusually liquid arms and an expressive back.

One of the greatest launching pads for an opera singer’s career, the Neue Stimmen once again proves its ability to attract the best operatic talents the world has to offer. 

For the 84th edition of its summer festival, the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino presents its first ever production of Gounod's Roméo et Juliette.

An eclectic line-up in Prague's Rudolfinum offers surprises and a surfeit of talent.

Adam Palka shines as the devil in this revival of Frank Castorf's multimedia staging that relocates the work to mid-20th century Paris, around the end of the Algerian War.

Stephen Barlow's intelligent production makes Gounod's grand opéra as dramatic as it is tuneful.

The Jette Parker Young Artists take on their most ambitious programme yet, showcasing some of the most promising Verdian voices of the future.

The real sensation of the evening was Alex Esposito – this time, Gounod's Faust should have been titled Méphistophélès...

Faust and Méphistophélès pal around like buddies in Castorf's multi-media staging, the devil here less diabolical and more anarchistic party-boy. 

Contrasting Gounod, Mozart and Ravel works were combined into an exhilarating package of technical virtuosity and musical finesse.

The two French singers convince in a programme including French late Romantics, Richard Strauss and a Verdi world premiere!

Live music-making returns to the UK as Stephen Hough performs Bach and Schumann in a streamed lunchtime recital

The revival of David McVicar's production of Gounod's Faust provides spectacle and entertainment in spades, with strong performances from Ivan Magrì (Faust) and Teddy Tahu Rhodes (Méphistophélès).

Philadelphia’s Academy of Vocal Arts Presents Gounod’s *Roméo et Juliette* with a fine young cast at the Haverford School. 

A devilishly fun performance of Gounod's take on Goethe, saved when Mandy Fredrich flew in at short notice to take over the role of Marguerite. 

Some rousing singing from the RTÉ Philharmonic Choir of the famous choruses from the great operas. 

Here was singing and playing to live long in the memory.

A Gounod rarity comes to Boston for a concert performance under the ever-enterprising Gil Rose.

Despite a great cast led by Marina Rebeka, La Fura dels Baus's unambitious approach to the myth of Faust and Dan Ettinger's noisy conducting prevent a brighter season opening at the Teatro Real.

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

Olena Tokar's assured coloratura made an immediate success of the waltz with her convincingly adolescent appearance, rhythmic verve and stylish phrasing.

Bartlett Sher's production of Gounod's Romeo et Juliette returns to the Met. 

Chicago's new Faust is a quest for youth but also a reflection on insipiration, fabrication and manipulation. 

Plasson shows all his experience; Lavaudant surprises and delights with his direction; a strong cast sing their hearts out. Who can ask for more?

The biggest stigma associated with opera in Ireland is not that it is an elitist art form, but that it is not “Irish”, and that it doesn’t belong to Irish culture, more of a recent import, like pasta, or avocado.

Celebrating its 60th anniversary, the Chicago Symphony Chorus made this evening truly distinctive.

Dorset Opera's second opera of their season saw a fiendishly good performance from Mark S Doss as Méphistophélès supported by a strong cast in Christopher Cowell's economical production.

An outstanding cast and Anthony Pilavachi's excellent production make a compelling case for Cinq-Mars at Oper Leipzig.

Confusion, lack of subtlety and volume issues beset the first Rosenblatt Recital of the year.

Vittorio Grigòlo and Diana Damrau repeated and cemented their intense on-stage relationship at the Met in Bartlett Sher's new production of Roméo et Juliette.

A thrilling new staging of Gounod's opera from the team that brought Bayreuth its current Ring, with musical rewards to match.

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.

Suzanne Farrell's revived premiere of Balanchine's Gounod Symphony is a triumph of form. 

Soprano Elizabeth Watts brought tonal richness and energy to an evening of French song with texts by Théophile Gautier, but her expressive arsenal was diminished by a bout of flu.

Santa Fe Opera presented Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette in Stephen Lawless’ mid 19th-century staging, a co-production with Barcelona's Liceu. Before the overture, General Director Charles MacKay came onstage to announce that Stephen Costello was ill and would be replaced by Joshua Guerrero, a graduate of the Los Angeles Opera Young Artist Program.

A disappointing staging for the Jette Parker Young Artists' annual showcase at the Royal Opera House. 

Despite an indisposition, Mariella Devia remains a formidable bel canto performer at her much-anticipated Wigmore Hall recital.

Opera Hong Kong’s Roméo et Juliette: a gigantic effort marred by confused artistic vision and irritating production choices.

With a Slovak team at the helm, the National Theater offers a smart, fresh take on a familiar story.

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

Bryan Hymel and Irene Roberts explored the boundaries of love in the latest splendid performance in the Rosenblatt Recitals.

If the production is full of pleasures, they do not immediately or obviously connect to a sense of some larger plan, which might have been helped along with a more dynamic set.

Bruno Ravella’s revival of David McVicar’s production of Faust, doing the rounds of Australia’s major opera companies, is currently inspiring Adelaidians with masterful performances by State Opera of South Australia.

Operalia is a curious beast among voice competitions. Step onto the stage, belt out your aria and, before you’ve barely had time to acknowledge the applause, the next contestant shuffles along the conveyor belt. A one-shot saloon. 

School’s out for summer and with it the opportunity for the Royal Opera’s Jette Parker Young Artists to showcase their talents in the end of term main stage performance. 

Stefano Poda’s deeply intellectual mis-en-scene immersed the bourgeois love affair between Marguerite and Faust in an abstract and transcendental tangle of philosophical, existential and liturgical motifs. However, an overflowing symbolism sounded sometimes academic, but the visual effects were suggestive if not properly enchanting.

The devil may not get all the best tunes in Gounod’s Faust, but Gábor Bretz certainly stole the show in this new production at Hungarian State Opera. 

In a somewhat long-overdue debut at the Concertgebouw, bel canto royalty Juan Diego Flórez and rising star Pretty Yende wowed the Amsterdam public with a generous programme of bel canto music.