Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | The Glyndebourne Chorus

It's been in the Glyndebourne rep for almost fifty years, but John Cox's production, complete with Hockney's iconic set, remains timeless. Robin Ticciati's superb conducting and an excellent cast made this latest revival a complete success.

Adele Thomas makes a good case for Semele's operatic credentials in her production which makes effective nods towards Baroque opera’s devotion to spectacle.

Brought to life by some sensational singing from a strong cast, Kosky's staging delivers repeated emotional punches. 

Strong singing and a punchy orchestral performance makes this latest revival of Donizetti's cheering village rom-com a hit.

Mariame Clément wants her cake and eats it in a thought-provoking production that explores Mozart’s opera through Leporello’s perspective.

A strong cast led by Bekhzod Davronov and Gabriella Reyes plus an intense production helps Floris Visser unusual staging of La bohème stand out from the crowd.

With Laurent Pelly directing, a very French evening sees a veritable feat of singing from Stéphanie d'Oustrac in La Voix humaine, followed by riotous surrealism in Les Mamelles de Tirésias.

An ideal young cast and a thoughtful production bring fresh perspectives to Puccini's tragedy.

Michael Grandage's vivid production of Mozart's comic masterpiece is fast becoming a classic and is revived here to a very high standard.

Smyth's rarely performed tale of evil deeds on the Cornish coast provides searing drama marred by poor intelligibility and an overpowering orchestra.

A memorable performance makes a worthy memorial to the late, great Bernard Haitink, who conducted the production's premiere. 

A vast panopticon cages strong musical performances in Wake-Walker's Fidelio at Glyndebourne, with Dorothea Herbert and Adam Smith standing out vocally and emotionally as Leonore and Florestan.

Not quite as innocent an account of opera buffa as others, but for quality of musicianship, Glyndebourne Tour's revival of Mariame Clément’s production of Donizetti's comedy hits all the right notes.

For social distancing reasons, the Festival dispensed with a full staging of Wagner's epic love story, allowing singers and orchestra to share the stage in an able compromise.

Christof Loy would seem to be the perfect director for Covid-era opera, his stripped back production of Verdi's rare middle period opera directed remotely from Austria.

Lush visuals and appealing singing do not quite make up for a somewhat lacklustre revival of Nicholas Hytner's acclaimed 2006 production of Mozart's late comedy.

Mariame Clément's hilarious and brilliantly original staging of Rossini's opera buffa is served with a generous helping of Rossinian bel canto. Who could ask for more?

Glyndebourne's 2021 season opens with an intense, minimalist staging of Janáček’s tale of adultery, focused on the contrasts between its heroine's dreams and reality.

The tears of a clown behind the public mask? Glyndebourne's first ever production of Rigoletto takes the audience to Hollywood in the silent film era. 

Annabel Arden's superb production of Donizetti's classic makes a welcome return for the Glyndebourne Tour in a taut revival led by two excellent principals.

Robert Carsen's riotous production of Rinaldo returns to the Sussex Downs, a schoolboy fantasy colliding crusading knights with St Trinian's bad girls. 

André Barbe and Renaud Doucet's Magic Flute is ideal entertainment for a fizz-filled summer night.

A welcome return to the Glyndebourne Festival for Melly Still's staging, which brings out the full emotional range of Dvořák’s fairytale of denial, heartbreak and forgiveness.

Cinderella undergoes psychoanalysis on the Sussex Downs as Fiona Shaw's production is revived for the Glyndebourne Festival. 

Cast changes and a revival director who sharpens up the action make all the difference to this revival of Rossini's *Barber of Seville* in Glyndebourne's opening weekend. 

Christopher Purves bosses the show as Méphistophélès; Richard Jones' production is intelligent and carefully thought through but ultimately unconvincing.

In her anxiety to be ‘new’, Shaw slaps a sackload of semi-comprehensible ideas onto a sort-of present day update.

An emotionally intense Violetta from Mané Galoyan in Tom Cairns' darkly challenging La traviata launches Glyndebourne Tour's 50th season

Brilliant staging, superb acting, a magnetic performance from Virginie Verrez and an excellent orchestral performance make a strong case for Samuel Barber's all-but-forgotten chiller.

Barrie Kosky's punchy, visually exhilarating take on Saul, with Iestyn Davies as a sublime David, makes for a powerful evening of drama at Glyndebourne.

Stefan Herheim's dreamlike production of Debussy's opera sets it squarely in the Sussex manor house that gave birth to Glyndebourne's festival. 

Interviewed at the time of this production's first outing, McVicar declared that “Entertainment is not a dirty word”. His Giulio Cesare remains a hugely entertaining opera production.

Strauss' mix of bedroom farce, comedy of manners and bittersweet musing about aging is acted and sung superbly in this revival of Richard Jones' production.

After dipping its toe in the cherry blossom for Glyndebourne's Tour in 2016, Annilese Miskimmon's staging of Puccini's gut-wrencher hits the main festival.

A restless score, a stylish modern setting and gripping central performances from David Butt Philip (trading Laertes at the festival for the title role here) and Jennifer France (Ophelia) do much to commend this new work

In Nicholas Hytner's chocolate box production, lovingly revived by Bruno Ravella for Glyndebourne's tour, Alfonso is the most charismatic character on the stage.

A revival of Arden's 2016 production of Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia is lifted by a strong ensemble cast for Glyndebourne's tour.

Glyndebourne's second Traviata cast of the summer saw the festival field three principals worthy of any major international opera house. 

A grimly dark setting for Mozart's final opera, Sesto and Tito haunted by childhood memories. 

Lisette Oropesa gives a coloratura star turn; Renato Girolami and Andrey Zhilikhovsky give the buffo patter; Mariame Clément's staging focuses on the work’s dark side.

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.

Tom Cairns' production feels empty and distracted, but Kristina Mkhitaryan was a sensational Violetta, strongly reinforced by an impressive Germont from Igor Golovatenko.

A lack of inspiration and dull staging is a serious hindrance to the second of Glyndebourne's touring productions.

How picturesque do you like your Puccini? Do you take your Turandot sweet or sour? How much lacquer is layered over your ideal Madama Butterfly?

Berlioz's Béatrice et Bénédict is light and fluffy, making it perfect summer festival fare. Sadly, like a soggy soufflé, Pelly's one-trick staging soon falls flat.

1960s kitsch set in old Seville, excellent acting and movement direction combines with strong singing and immaculate playing from the OAE to make Glyndeboune's Le nozze di Figaro a triumph.

Melly Still returns to revive her 2012 staging at Glyndebourne, laying nature bare. Cartoonish, but never sentimental, it presents Vixen red in tooth and claw, 

Annabel Arden's new production, although decently sung and visually striking, is seriously under-directed, allowing forced acting to blunt the humour.

“Honour your masters!” Sachs instructs Walther in the final scene. Wagner's spirit was honoured well as Glyndebourne's festival opened, but did the song contest necessarily crown the right winner?  

“If music be the food of love, play on, give me excess of it.” There was certainly plenty of Shakespeare-inspired music on the bill for the London Philharmonic Orchestra's celebration of The Bard.