Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Michael Chioldi

Sarah Dufresne shines as Gilda in Glynis Leyshon’s gloomy staging of Rigoletto, set in Victorian London. 

Michael Chioldi, Soraya Mafi and Bekhzod Davronov shine in Julien Chavez’ energetic production in Dublin’s Bord Gais Theatre. 

The Metropolitan Opera premieres Florencia en el Amazonas by Mexican composer Daniel Catán in an eye-catching, warm production by Mary Zimmerman. 

The Met's first European tour in 20 years makes it to London for an evening of Shakespeare and Berlioz.

Verdi's Rigoletto in Weimar Germany? A half-baked concept, but Bartlett Sher's new production is certainly dramatic and it is gorgeously sung. 

Odyssey Opera's Tudor themed season opens with Saint-Saëns' Henry VIII in which Ellie Dehn's Catherine of Aragon steals the show. 

Odyssey Opera's concert performance of Le Cid is sadly compromised by the size of the hall. 

Francesca Zambello's huge, ambitious production returns once again to the Royal Albert Hall, with lavish costumes, excellent choreography and riotous crowd scenes which will charm children in particular. 

On Thursday night the DC opera fans gathered at the Washington National Opera for the opening night of David Alden’s production of Donizetti’s timeless tale of love and horror, Lucia di Lammermoor. It soon became obvious that the production presented to us was not the most conservative one.

For over a century, Puccini’s Madama Butterfly has been one of the most famous and widely staged operas in the world. The secret of this undying popularity lies in the complex and contradictive nature of the main heroine. Audiences always look for new vocal and dramatic interpretations of the character and keep their expectations high for the leading soprano.