Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Nahuel Di Pierro

Voices, orchestra staging: everything in this Ercole Amante is light and magic, to the great delight of the Salle Favart audience.

Michele Mariotti triumphs in Rossini’s masterpiece with a good cast led by Salome Jicia and a new production, only partially successful.

In Il turco in Italia, Gioachino Rossini’s command of spiritedness and musical timing is well matched by the plot of lovers’ infidelities.

Cecilia Bartoli once again takes Zurich by storm under the guiding hand of Maestro William Christie for a wonderful evening of Handelian fun.

Calixto Bieito sets Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea in a hedonist, decadent society whose citizens are defined by their egotism, ambition and sexual exploits.

Jean-François Sivadier's pulsating new production propels The Don through his lusty adventures at a whirlwind pace. 

It's typical that in the last concert in a series that has lasted seventeen years, we had a recital from a talented young singer with a growing reputation, a Rosenblatt classic.

From devoted wife and mother to murdering avenger, Médée is is a challenging role. A new Zurich production firmly secures her place in the collective memory, perhaps for the wrong reasons.

In David Hermann's new production, confusion reigns, but the performance is saved by the singing. 

The controversial Aix-en-Provence Così fan tutte reaches the Edinburgh Festival with a thrilling first-rate international cast and the excellent Freiburger Barockorchester.

King Arthur, an action-packed five-act semi- or "dramatick” opera with music by Henry Purcell and libretto by John Dryden, took on an entirely new face at its recent Zurich première.

Theatre director Christoph Marthaler is renowned – if notorious – for his “off the wall” productions and adherence to bad boy antics. This Viaggio was no exception.

Kasper Holten's virtuosic staging is revived by the Royal Opera with a cast of three exceptionally strong women, and accomplished performances by Christopher Maltman and Alex Esposito as the Don and his servant.

Joseph Calleja and Anna Netrebko show off their vocal qualities, leading a star cast above an uninspiring orchestral performance in John Copley's Royal Opera production of La bohème in what is to be its last season.

An audacious mix of baroque and contemporary themes, from a collaboration of artists, yields an exceptional aesthetic experience.

The Netherlands Opera’s revival production of Prokofiev’s L’amour des trois oranges is sweet, juicy, and just a bit bitter in the right moments.This production presents Prokofiev’s piece in the original French with Dutch and English supertitles. At its first performance in Chicago in 1921, Prokofiev’s opera was presented in French rather than Russian. French is a sensible choice for this region.

Opera at the 2012 Proms began with a performance of Debussy’s only completed opera, Pelléas et Mélisande. Conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner, the production celebrated the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth, and marked the 24 years since Gardiner first brought the work to the Royal Albert Hall with the Opéra de Lyon.

This was the second vocal concert of late (the last being Ariodante with Joyce DiDinato) to feature an exemplary female soloist caged inside an otherwise nondescript performance. Jérémie Rohrer tried in vain to force energy out of French chamber choir Les Elements and period ensemble Le Cercle de l’Harmonie.

Eminent choix de programmation que d’adjoindre à l’attendu Stabat Mater de Rossini l’amène Symphonie n°3 de Schubert et, surtout, l’inédit Chant Funèbre de Stravinsky, retrouvé en 2014 à Saint Pétersbourg et ici en création. 

Version concert très convaincante de la nouvelle production zürichoise de l'Enlèvement au Sérail, œuvre dont la portée symbolique riche en possibilités de traitements semble ici laisser tout l'espace d'expression nécéssaire aux chanteurs.

On nous avait certes garanti une production exempte de têtes emperruquées et de décors à dorures, mais pas grand-chose ne nous avait préparé à une telle radicalité de mise en scène. 

Qu'on le veuille ou non, jouer le requiem de Mozart est devenu un acte politique. Instruments anciens ou instruments modernes ? Faut-il opter pour Süssmayr – un choix manifestement sûr – ou tenter, au risque de se faire huer des extrémistes, Robbins Landon, voire la version de Rio ? La réponse de Bertrand de Billy dans cet article.

Le 17 octobre, Patricia Petibon interprétait un récital « Monstres, sorcères et magiciens » au Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, secondée par la basse Nahuel di Pierro, et accompagnée par le Concert d'Astrée sous la baguette d'Emmanuelle Haïm. Une soirée parsemée de beaux moments, mais pas inoubliable.

Cette nouvelle production de Dardanus ravit les amoureux de musique baroque par sa qualité, mais peut laisser perplexes les amoureux de mise en scène et costumes plus discrets.

L'incontournable Bohème de Puccini est une nouvelle fois à l'affiche de l'Opéra Bastille. Une valeur sûre dont on aurait tort de se lasser.

L’Opéra de Paris propose un deuxième opéra de Bellini cette saison : I Capuleti e i Montecchi. Sous la baguette de Bruno Campanella et dans une mise en scène de Robert Carsen, Ekaterina Siurina (Giuletta) et Karine Deshayes (Romeo) incarnent le couple légendaire. Une production agréable sans être exceptionnelle.