Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Paul Steinberg

There are several things wrong with the new Robert Carsen directed Der Rosenkavalier that just opened at the Met, but the singing is not among them.

The Rossini masterpiece is brought to life by an inspired conductor and four first-class singers in a new, modern production by David Alden.

In Richard Jones' production of Don Giovanni at Theater Basel, it was the singers alone who stole the limelight.

Renée Fleming has decided the time is right to bow out gracefully from the operatic stage, choosing her signature role to bid the fondest of farewells to London.

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

Daniele Gatti illuminates Robert Carsen's blithe Falstaff narrative

If “all the world’s a jest”, as Sir John Falstaff claims at the end of Verdi’s final operatic masterpiece, then we need players – and directors – with a sense of frivolity. Robert Carsen truly delivers. 

The auditorium's lights flared up, drawing a blinking audience back into the room. The fourth wall was well and truly broken, and each of us was given no option but to acknowledge our responsibility for the planet.

With ENO having been in the news for all the wrong reasons last week,  it needed Richard Jones' The Mastersingers of Nuremberg to be a great production. Lit up by a towering performance by Iain Paterson, it is.

Ambrogio Maestri reprises his star turn as a vocally and theatrically complete Falstaff in Robert Carsen’s lavish, food-fuelled situational comedy at the Holland Festival.

Deutsche Oper Berlin’s Billy Budd, although musically satisfying, suffers through an ambiguously set production.