Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Kyle Ketelsen

Lyric Opera of Chicago's production of Missy Mazzoli's opera, which the company co-commissioned, has strong, dramatic, expressive music throughout, but the story lacks continuity. 

Amy Lane's scattered borrowings from Tim Burton to Stanley Kubrick fail to cohere in the Canadian Opera Company's new Faust.

Riccardo Muti selects Beethoven’s daunting Missa solemnis for his final performance as Music Director of the Chicago Symphony, a performance that proves worthy of his remarkable tenure.

Is it possible to have a minor success on every level? Kevin Puts' The Hours underwhelms in its world premiere production at the Metropolitan Opera. 

Frozen lava rock extends from the proscenium to the backcloth, an apt image to depict the harm Don Giovanni inflicts upon the other characters in Mozart's darkest opera.

Dmitri Tcherniakov updates the "German Romantic Opera" into a modern-day thriller with interesting twists in a musically splendid performance in Munich.

Lots of people talk about keeping opera relevant. WNO shows why this opera always has been.

A revival of Richard Jones’ production of Handel’s emotionally probing opera. 

Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s proves the highlight of a frustrating evening at The Metropolitan Opera

A disappointing new production by David Marton at Opéra de Lyon. 

Virtuoso modern stagecraft and a fine cast combine in a very enjoyable, present-day Rake’s Progress.

Simon McBurney's production of The Rake's Progress for Festival d'Aix-en-Provence begins with the equivalent of a blank page – a simple white paper box onto which he pours his inspiration.

Anyone expecting a wishing well, castle and healthy portion of pomp in Dmitri Tcherniakov’s new production of Pélleas et Mélisande is in for a big surprise.

The English Concert give us a truly exceptional concert performance of Orlando, starring Iestyn Davies in the title role, with a strong cast and glorious singing: but it's begging for a proper staging. 

Labadie made a noteworthy return to the Chicago Symphony in a satisfying performance of Handel's Messiah.

Roman mythology bumps into Buddhism, not always comfortably, in Zhang Huan’s production of Handel’s Semele at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

This production's consistent visual beauty forms the setting for this Don’s musical approach. It is a testament to this ensemble that Mariusz Kwiecień can’t steal the show in spite of his utterly commanding physical and vocal presence as the Don.

Thoughtful character placement and a keen eye for detail contribute to a Carmen in Rome which is short on passion, but lovingly played. 

The new Barber of Seville at the Lyric Opera, brought to life by the director Rob Ashford, set designer Scott Pask, and conductor Michele Mariotti, is not only intelligent and imaginative but also strings successions of images, gestures, and sung moments into truly satisfying large-scale forms.

The 2012 Festival d’Aix-en-Provence began its four-week feast of opera and music with Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro—and could there be better a way? Nothing can beat the sublime company of Mozart, Da Ponte and Beaumarchais on a summer evening in the open-air Théâtre de l'Archevêché.

Everybody’s favorite bad girl in the world of opera is back again for a spectacular romp of delights, mischief, seduction, and tragic culmination in the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s 2010 revival of its 1999 production of Bizet’s Carmen.

Szenisch mit Denkanstößen, musikalisch hoch filigran: Lotte de Beers Neuinszenierung an der Bayerischen Staatsoper ist in Nathalie Stutzmanns Dirigat eine tief bewegende Vertonung von Goethes Faust-Stoff.

In rein konzertanter Form wirkte die musikdramatische Kraft von Webers Freischütz unmittelbar und intensiv. Antonello Manacorda hatte die Partitur präzise ausgeleuchtet, die Kammerakademie Potsdam spielte klangschön und das Gesangsensemble füllte seine Rollen eindrucksvoll aus.

En dépit d'une direction et de textes de liaison inégaux, le concert remporte un beau succès grâce à une fort belle distribution. 

Castelluccis ideen- und effektreiche Inszenierung bleibt auch in der „Neueinstudierung“ mit verändertem Orchester und Sängern beim Publikum umstritten.

In Tcherniakovs neuer Inszenierung an der Staatsoper Hamburg ist Asmik Grigorian nach fünf Jahren endlich wieder als Salome zu erleben.

Herausragende stimmliche Leistungen und Antonello Manacordas Leitung werden in der Staatsoper begeistert aufgenommen.

Die Sänger, allen voran Annette Dasch, brillieren in Calixto Bieitos ideenreicher und ambitionierter Inszenierung.

Während sich Les Siècles wieder als lautmalerisch vortrefflicher Tonsetzer zeigt, wird dem Chor leider zu wenig Berlioz-Mephisto-Drama eingeimpft.

Esta Carmen es una explosión de fuerza y destino, que sabe conjugar la violencia irrefrenable de unas pulsiones desatadas con la desolación de una tragedia inevitable.

Il est tentant de plaquer sur l’essence poétique du livret de Maeterlinck, à la fois illogique et cohérent, des relectures, des idées de mise en scène ou des projections plus ou moins pertinentes – en bref : de rationnaliser un propos laissé volontairement à l’imagination. 

Mozart-Da Ponte, ese binomio casi divino, es garantía de éxito seguro, o al menos de una velada con lo mejor en la parte musical y teatral. Con estos mimbres, las funciones del Liceu de este mes de noviembre pasan por ser un bálsamo para los melómanos y el público que se acerca por primera vez al mundo de la lírica.