Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Rebecca Evans

Benjamin Britten's final opera hasn't been staged by The Royal Opera in over 25 years, but his setting of Thomas Mann's Death in Venice receives a great new production by Sir David McVicar. 

Comedy fails to spark in Laurent Pelly's new production of Falstaff at the Teatro Real. 

The Nash Ensemble exploited its versatility in a wide-ranging and enjoyable programme of French chamber music and song featuring soprano Rebecca Evans.

In Thomas Guthrie’s revival of Sir David McVicar’s sober 2003 production of Mozart’s Singspiel, it was the pantomime elements of the show which registered strongly.

Gloriously sung and stylishly played, this Rosenkavalier is a feast for the ears and eyes and should be heard without delay. 

Under the baton of Simon Wright, the RLPO and the Leeds Festival Chorus gave an exciting rendition of Tippett’s A Child of Our Time.

A blistering performance of Suor Angelica is the highlight of this strongly performed revival of Richard Jones' 2011 production.

With Lawrence Zazzo's spectacular counter-tenor voice, Handel's Orlando finds an ideal interpreter.

Stimulating sounds from the Academy of Ancient Music in late night Bach at the Proms. 

Juanjo Mena conducts stirring accounts of Beethoven's Fourth and Ninth symphonies at Manchester's Bridgewater Hall with the CBSO Chorus.

Richard Jones' new production of Rodelinda for ENO has some very good singing, but suffers from a production that refuses to take the opera seriously.

If Count Almaviva (to say nothing of Don Giovanni) were alive today, he might perhaps enlist Richard Dawkins to defend his behaviour. We know from evolutionary biology that the male stands the best chance of passing on his genes if he has many partners, the female if she can keep the male around to help raise the children he’s had with her.

Three years ago, John Berry, ENO’s Artistic Director, invited acclaimed theatre director Rufus Norris to reinvent Mozart’s Don Giovanni. Unfortunately, it was not much of a success, and was panned by critics. This year, the production has returned to ENO, with some changes, albeit none that are particularly remarkable. ENO’s publicity machine has, this time round, gone on an advertising offensive.

If you’ve never been to a grand-scale choral work at the Royal Albert Hall, I’d urge you to do so at the earliest opportunity. This wasn’t my first visit to the Proms, and I’ve experienced oratorios, requiems and passions galore in other places, but to hear hundreds of accomplished singers filling this vast circular space was new territory for me. The hall seemed made for the occasion.

Mention Beijing in London at the moment and some allusion to opening ceremonies, sports or medals will undoubtedly follow (with an optional grumble about the transport system tagged on the end).

Elgar’s oratorios The Apostles (1903) and The Kingdom (1906) are the manifestation of a fascination that he had held since his childhood in Worcester.

Murder. Suicide. Grand larceny. Puccini's triptych of short operas, two tragedies followed by a riotous farce, always makes for an evening of variety, with the potential for many snatches of greatness.