Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Paul Appleby

John Adams’ Antony and Cleopatra puts the composer's propulsive music at the service of both moments of riveting human drama and less effective scenes of battle and politics. 

A concert performance of Puccini's take on operetta sees a superlative reading of the score from Sir Antonio Pappano, and a sensational Magda from Carolina López Moreno.

A visually delightful revival of Barbe & Doucet's action-packed Zauberflöte at Glyndebourne, with strong vocal performances throughout. 

Foccroulle’s limited score imitates environmental catastrophe while Jocelyn’s libretto tries – unevenly – to understand why we might ignore it.

John Adams' opera, in its third revision since its 2017, receives an outstanding concert performance in Walt Disney Concert Hall under the composer's baton. 

Great vocal performances from Amina Edris and Gerald Finley grace John Adams' new opera, which opens San Francisco Opera’s centennial season.

Harry Bicket brings verve and distinctiveness to a stellar cast in Stephen Wadsworth's production, which is neither conventional nor daring.

A cast comprised of the world’s leading Wagnerians, under the baton of Sir Antonio Pappano, deserve better than Otto Schenk’s outdated and cartoonish production. 

The credits for this new production directed by Olivier Py raised high expectations that were only partially met on opening night.

The Met's spectators love Mozart’s opera, but they deserve an updated staging.

Dame Shirley’s texts are here sung by the young American soprano Julia Bullock whose pliable instrument and stylish way with words reveal an ideal storyteller.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s proves the highlight of a frustrating evening at The Metropolitan Opera

Jane Glover’s Cleveland Orchestra performance of Handel’s Messiah was both celebratory and historically-informed.

Manfred Honeck concluded the PSO’s season – his tenth as music director – with Emanuel Ax in Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto and a spectacular traversal of Berlioz’s Te Deum.

Candide is a witty satiric fable, intelligent, literary but not to a fault, and vastly entertaining. Created by a team of collaborators who fell out at different times in the work’s 52 year history – at one point or another, Lillian Hellman, Richard Wilbur, John Latouche, Dorothy Parker, Stephen Sondheim and, of course, composer Leonard Bernstein had a hand in it – it is unique in the operatic or

Virtuoso modern stagecraft and a fine cast combine in a very enjoyable, present-day Rake’s Progress.

Adams and Peter Sellars demand that the audience take a cold, hard look at the Gold Rush and the founding history of California.

Simon McBurney's production of The Rake's Progress for Festival d'Aix-en-Provence begins with the equivalent of a blank page – a simple white paper box onto which he pours his inspiration.

The revival of this nine-year-old production feels dated, but its three Rs – Ruiten, Rose and Rhorer – make it a worthwhile evening.

Don Giovanni is an opera which has as its title character a man who is an unrepentant womaniser, who ultimately receives his just reward in one of the most famous scenes in opera where he is consumed into the fires of hell.

Simon Keenlyside returned to the Met after absence and led a delightful cast of Don Giovanni at the Met.

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.

A bird's-eye view of Gustavo Dudamel's opening concert in the LA Phil's Mozart-Pärt cycle.

An amiable revival of John Dexter's Die Entführung at The Metropolitan Opera makes Mozart’s Singspiel accessible and genial.

Jun Kaneko's production of The Magic Flute at San Francisco Opera is a feast for the eyes, but both the stage direction and the translation need work.

With the help of a star-studded cast, Barrie Kosky's imaginative staging delivers a production of Handel's Saul which has just about everything going for it: choreography, voices, acting. A must-see.

A bearded lady and her taxidermied shark are just two eccentric characters livening up Stravinsky’s 1951 moral fable The Rake’s Progress, though the shark is unique to Jonathan Miller’s revived production. 

James Levine led a solid and at times excellent performance of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in Otto Schenk's traditional production that somehow lacked sparkle and excitement.

32-year-old Nico Muhly recently tweeted “I'm obsessed with people asking why I must write such ‘atonal music.

Not a new production, the Metropolitan Opera’s staging of Dialogues des Carmélites, originally directed by John Dexter in 1977, was nonetheless fresh and compelling in its approach and not at all tired, despite its age.

La direction enthousiasmante de Wayne Marshall et les qualités de la distribution ne suffisent pas à compenser une mise en scène creuse, qui ne fait pas honneur à la fantaisie de l'œuvre de Bernstein.

Nicht einmal eine kurzfristige Corona-Infektion konnte diese amüsante und musikalisch beeindruckende Erstaufführung in der Oper Köln vom Glänzen abhalten.

La producción de la Komische Oper de Berlín de La flauta mágica se presenta de nuevo en el Teatro Real. Un montaje de inspiración cinematográfica que no acaba de reflejar los ideales del Singspiel de Mozart.