Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Allan Clayton

Brett Dean's Hamlet is an extremely powerful theatrical experience, excelling in all aspects of production, singing and musical values, but is it an opera?

Robert Hayward was unafraid to 'go ugly' when need be in Jurowski's symphonically executed concert performance. 

Ryan Wigglesworth conducts a Huw Watkins première and a grand-scale account of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony

Mirga's approach to Beethoven's Fifth showed a flair for innovation, the highlight of a strong programme that also featured a virtuosic performance from Leila Josefowciz of Stravinsky's Violin Concerto.

Brett Dean treats Shakespeare's behemoth as a timeless story told in language that has become timeless; no effort is spared in elucidating and amplifying that story.

Holten's masonic lodge setting of Meistersinger gets a lot right but is occasionally uneven; Terfel and Hughes Jones are constantly good to listen to.

Lewis Carroll's Alice: so crazy that all Gerald Barry can do is make it crazier.

Richard Jones' new production is original and thought-provoking, while a commendable cast soars under the capable baton of Mark Wigglesworth.

Masaaki Suzuki’s debut with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

A revival of Simon McBurney's 2013 production of The Magic Flute reaches new heights under Mark Wigglesworth's baton.

The Komische Oper production of Die Zauberflöte is a modern classic: absolute magic conjured by Barrie Kosky and the team from 1927 theatre.

The Rape of Lucretia may be something of a problem piece, but Fiona Shaw's production is an excellent piece of ensemble theatre set around some very fine performances of music of rare beauty.

Lothar Koenigs conducts a stylish, colourful Magic Flute inspired by Magritte. 

Thursday's performance of Haydn's The Creation got out to something of a rough start, but proved a lovely concert by the end.

“Beware, my Lord, of jealousy” warns Iago, planting the seed of doubt in Otello’s mind. Beware, too, the dangers of preconceptions. Keen anticipation of this new production of Verdi’s Otello was tempered by the prospect of David Alden as director.

Vaughan Williams' Pastoral Symphony is anything but "lambkins frisking", drawing on the composer's experiences in the First World War. In this poignant concert, it was partnered by a trio of works by composers - from both sides of the trenches - who died in action. 

An impressive performance of Oedipus Rex under Sakari Oramo, demonstrating that his rapport with his new orchestra has grown rapidly. 

It’s so good to hear Tippett’s ravishing opera, The Midsummer Marriage, performed in full at the Proms, particularly in Britten’s centenary year. Tippet’s work is like an antidote to Britten’s drier, more literal operatic style – so overflowing with warmth, colour and hope.

Saturday night’s performance of Handel’s oratorio Theodora at La Maison Symphonique in Montréal was magnificent, probably the best concert I’ve seen this season. Les Violons du Roy, La Chapelle de Québec, as well as a handful of soloists from Québec and England, all under the masterful direction of Bernard Labadie, brought this somewhat obscure work vividly to life.

Among the brilliant programming of The Rest is Noise festival in London, there was one concert this year that stood above all the others for me: the European première of Shostakovich’s opera prologue Orango. First discovered in an archive in 2004 by scholar Olga Digonskaya, Orango was never finished by Shostakovich, and indeed only a piano score remained.

The title for this Barbican event certainly threw up some interesting questions. Having failed to attend a riotous dinner party that was characterised by one attendee as “a scream and an outrage”, Nico Muhly set about curating a series of concerts under this title. However, no screams or outrages occurred this weekend.

21st century opera is a broad church. There aren’t many of us, I suppose, who are intimately familiar with the biographical accounts of the lives of 13th century troubadours, popular at the time in Spain and south west France. But Martin Crimp and George Benjamin, librettist and composer of Written on skin, aren’t exactly run of the mill people.

Few things could unite such a large group of people as the Hallé’s Meistersinger did tonight. Some 515 performers, drawn from three orchestras and five choirs, gathered to present highlights from the first two acts of Wagner’s opera and the third act in full.

The sea has been the inspiration for many concert works; Debussy’s La mer springs to mind immediately as perhaps the most popular, but in England during the first half of the 20th century nautical themes sustained an important presence. Amongst Delius’ Sea Drift, Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony and Britten’s Four Sea Interludes sits Frank Bridge’s short and splendid suite The Sea.

Handel’s Belshazzar was the oratorio of choice for renowned music group Les Arts Florissants at the Barbican last week. The group was famously set up in France in 1979 by the American-born William Christie, eventually becoming an international household name for its critically acclaimed performances and recordings of Baroque operas on period instruments.

It was a glass-smashing, balloon-popping, bearskin-wearing, strip-out-of-your-swimsuit-onstage kind of afternoon at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater for the opening of New York City Opera’s second production of the 2012 season, Mozart’s Così fan tutte.Even for people who’ve seen this opera before, I’ll bet they’ve never seen a Così like this one.

Before attending Sir Mark Elder and the Britten Sinfonia’s performance of L’enfance du Christ, I could have claimed to be almost entirely ignorant of Berlioz’s music. The only exception – apart from an innocuous bucolic passage from Harold in Italy I ‘studied’ at A-level – was ‘The Shepherd’s Farewell’, which makes my Christmas chocolate box list annually.

Rameau's Castor et Pollux, his take on the Greek myth of two brothers so close that Pollux is prepared to descend into hell in the place of Castor, isn't exactly one of the standards of the repertoire.

Several audience members didn't bother to return after the interval, and there were a few walkouts even before that. It seems Christopher Alden's darkly brilliant new production isn't for everybody. But those of us who stuck it out for the full three hours were rewarded with a reminder that beneath the surface of the Shakespeare-based fairy fable lurk some disquieting truths.

"Intermezzo" has submitted an excellent and comprehensive review of the opening night of this classy new production, but I was so shocked to hear booing from neighbouring seats that perhaps I might be permitted to add this view from a relative opera novice? I've not seen this opera before, or even the Shakespeare play, so although I had nothing to compare it with, I also had nothing to miss in th

What clever scheduling by Opera North. In the centre of Leeds the snow is turning grey and slushy, the temperature is ridiculously low and it's dark before mid-afternoon, but inside The Grand Theatre it's a different story- a story which seems specifically designed to lift the winter blues.

Qu’on adhère ou non au propos de Katie Mitchell, on ne sort pas indemne de ce spectacle qui donne à entendre des pages sublimes, mais sort délibérément le spectateur de sa zone de confort.

Douglas Boyd dirigeait l’Orchestre de Chambre de Paris dans un Messie de belle tenue à la Philharmonie de Paris. On y était.

Karina Gauvin y Christine Rice lideran el estreno escénico en Madrid de la obra maestra de Händel