Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Taylor Stayton

Herheim pulls us in unexpected directions, makes us laugh and makes us think as we enjoy fine Rossinian music and singing in Opéra de Lyon's production.

A conventional and quite predictable staging of Lehár’s most famous operetta was saved by dedicated musicians.

Emilio Sagi’s brightly lit but simplistic staging of Il viaggio a Reims moves the action from northern France to a sunny spa hotel in warmer climes.

With his first foray into Rossini, Norwegian director Stefan Herheim turns La Cenerentola into a brilliantly funny spectacle, filled with thought provoking humour and outstanding singing.

Glyndebourne's annual performance at the Proms proves dramatically untraditional but musically solid.

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

“Prepare to be shocked!” was the warning issued before this new Lucia di Lammermoor from Katie Mitchell at the Royal Opera House. Shocking? Yes, but in a good way. 

In Anna Bolena, Sondra Radvanovsky plays a queen who loses her crown. But she approaches a different coronation: as the first to play three of Donizetti's Tudor Queens at the Met.

François de Carpentries’ Oslo production of The Barber of Seville is back for its fourth revival. The singing ranges from the uninteresting to the outright excellent, but the production can still provide a thoroughly entertaining evening at the opera.

Visually and vocally beautiful, but the case for updating the setting of this story is not made.

This year’s revival of Mary Zimmerman’s La Sonnambula at the Met requires too much suspension of disbelief to seriously work, but it provides a fun and vibrant take on Bellini’s bel canto opera all the same. In the title role, Diana Damrau knocked it out of the park. 

Pour l'ouverture de la saison de l'Opera de Lille, Antonello Allemandi et Jean Bellorini proposent une Cenerentola pleine de fantaisie et de mouvement. Une production très inspirée par l'univers cinématographique... et la bicyclette !