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Dreisig, Degout, Jaroussky – the cream of French singing puts the history of female composers on show for International Women's Day.

A highly successful Falstaff at the Archevêché in Aix-en-Provence, for our greater pleasure: a true lesson in joy in a world where, we are told, all is but a joke.

Even outstanding soloists had to wait their turn in this Rolls-Royce performance in Aix-en-Provence.

Cecilia Bartoli leads a great cast in Gluck’s masterpiece, presented in Zurich in a new insightful production by Andreas Homoki.

Bertrand de Billy made his debut with the LPO in an all-French programme headlined by Fauré's Requiem and preceded by a rewarding pairing of Poulenc's Organ Concerto and Sept Repons des Tenebres

The Canadian director's aesthetic is a perfect fit for Gluck's work. Dazzling performances by Gaëlle Arquez and Stéphane Degout. Great musical direction by Thomas Hengelbrock.

A devilishly fun performance of Gounod's take on Goethe, saved when Mandy Fredrich flew in at short notice to take over the role of Marguerite. 

Tcherniakov reduces Berlioz' epic to little more than Circle Time therapy, a poor way to mark the composer's anniversary year.

Hamlet lives! Ambroise Thomas' operatic take on The Bard has a particularly French ending but that doesn't spoil this terrific revival in Paris. 

Despite a great cast led by Marina Rebeka, La Fura dels Baus's unambitious approach to the myth of Faust and Dan Ettinger's noisy conducting prevent a brighter season opening at the Teatro Real.

George Benjamin and Martin Crimp's second full scale opera is a refinement of the craft showed in Written on Skin – but the lessons are less in love and violince than in power, tension and beauty of the score.

A (nearly) complete performance of the original French version of Don Carlos forms the centrepiece of Daniele Rustioni's Verdi Festival in Lyon. 

If I wrote that I loved Philippe Boesmans' Pinocchio, my nose may grow a little. The 81-year old composer in collaboration with Joël Pommerat, shifts the tale far away from any cutesy Disney fantasy, returning it to the harsh reality of Carlo Collodi's original fable.

Nothing is better than when Berlioz ramps up the decibels. With a huge orchestra and choir and a deluxe starry cast assembled in Strasbourg, this was a special performance. 

Under the baton of René Jacobs, B’rock Orchestra gave an inspired performance  that ought to contribute in giving Il ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria the place it deserves in the standard repertoire.

The singing is the main attraction in Dutch National Opera’s Le nozze di Figaro, but this new production is also entertaining and looks good enough to eat.

Suave baritone Stéphane Degout was mood – and word – perfect in the brooding melancholy of Debussy. In perfect collusion with pianist Alain Planès, he was even better in droll fables by Poulenc and Ravel.

A decadent romantic programme of Wagner and Mahler, where Nathalie Stutzmann delivered a scintillating performance particularly in Wagner's Prelude.

Great opera at the Los Angeles Philharmonic as Esa-Pekka Salonen conducted Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande as part of the City of Light, a retrospective that examines works seen in Paris during the first half of the 20th century. 

Leah Hausman's revival of David McVicar's production allows the comedy to stem from the situations set up by Mozart and da Ponte... aided by Erwin Schrott's witty Figaro.

Whimsical program of French symphonic and operatic works opens the CSO's "French Reveries and Passions" festival.

“Acting is the expression of a neurotic impulse. It’s a bum’s life,” stated the late, great Marlon Brando. Felix Breisach took this idea to heart when staging his modernized Figaro in a mental institution.

Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande is on the bill at the Paris Opera. How to control one's enthusiasm for a work that is so delicate and so evocative, served up by such highly devoted artists?

With the Philharmonia on top form, a superlative cast and clever touches of direction, this was a truly stunning concert performance of Debussy's only opera.

The singing is strong and the stagework slick in Laurent Pelly's rib-tickling, often uproarious production of Le Comte Ory.

Ambroise Thomas’s Hamlet has riled and infuriated ever since its 1868 première, though for many it is merely an object of derision: one 1869 correspondent to the satirical magazine Punch admits not having seen the work but nevertheless disparages it as ‘Omelette’, a musical ‘burlesque’, and pillories Thomas’s fondness for drinking songs with the lines ‘To drink or not to drink? That is now the que

“Once Upon a Time…” No doubt, this has become one of the most familiar lines of childhood. Indeed, what childhood would be complete without fairy tales and fantastical stories of knights, princesses, dragons, and talking animals? Even into adulthood, fantasy and fairy tales continue to capture the imagination of many.

Read our review of Bartlett Sher's production of Rossini's Le Comte Ory in its 2011 broadcast from the Met Opera in New York.

When Franz Liszt conducted Le Comte Ory in Weimar, he said it “bubbled like champagne,” according to the Metropolitan Opera’s program note. It also noted that Liszt arranged for the audience to be served champagne in Act II.

Some in the audience stormed to their feet at curtain call with exuberant bravos for the cast and conductor. Others walked out at the first intermission. “A monumental success,” one claimed. “The worst opera I’ve ever seen,” another said leaving the theater.

Gounod's Roméo et Juliette isn't exactly a rarity, but it is no longer one of the stalwarts of the opera repertoire, a position which it certainly occupied during the Victorian era (there were 102 performances at the Théâtre-Lyrique in Paris in the first year of its life, followed by 291 performances at the Opéra-Comique in the next twenty).

Si la mise en scène sombre et dépouillée de Laurent Pelly montre ses limites, Stéphane Degout se distingue pour ses débuts dans le rôle-titre, formidablement suivi par le reste de la distribution.

Sabine Devieilhe triomphe dans Lakmé à l'Opéra Comique, dans un spectacle visuellement un peu terne mais musicalement superbe.

La légende brahmsienne de Die schöne Magelone se déploie de manière inégale mais néanmoins élégante grâce au chant de Stéphane Degout et Marielou Jacquard et à la prose de Roger Germser.

Homoerotische Softpornos sorgen bei der Premiere von Hector Berlioz Grand opéra für ein ungewöhnlich lautstarkes Buh-Konzert – trotz einer Vielzahl von musikalischen Highlights.

El exotismo de la India conquista el Teatro Real con la ópera de Léo Delibes bajo la direción de Leo Hussain.

De retour à l’Opéra Comique, l'œuvre d’Ambroise Thomas n’a rien perdu de son pouvoir de fascination, portée par deux des plus grandes voix du moment et par la mise en scène de Cyril Teste.

Le Capitole accueille le chef-d’œuvre d’Alban Berg mis en scène par Michel Fau. Au sein de cette production de qualité, Stéphane Degout se distingue dans le rôle-titre.

Zwar litt die Inszenierung an bekannten oder braven Wirrungen, doch überzeugten Gesangs- und Instrumentalensembles mit kontrastreicher, kräftiger und griffiger Sprache in trüben Zeiten.

Rentrée en demi-teinte pour l'Orchestre de l'Opéra de Lyon qui ouvre sa saison par une série de concerts symphoniques, avec ce soir un Stéphane Degout particulièrement inspiré en dépit d'un chef moins convaincant. 

Concert entièrement dédié à Mahler à la Philharmonie avec l'Orchestre de Paris et le Finlandais Jukka-Pekka Saraste, pour une Symphonie n° 6 très impressionnante mais un peu plate par moments.

Le lyricophile James Gray fait ses débuts à l'opéra, avec une mise en scène des Noces de Figaro séduisante à l'œil mais un peu sage. 

Stéphane Degout et Cédric Tiberghien proposaient aux Bouffes du Nord un riche programme, mêlant mélodie et lied pour une soirée riche en contrastes. 

Un segundo reparto muy solvente encabezado por Ismael Jordi dieron vida a la propuesta escénica de Alex Ollé en una nueva producción en el Teatro Real de la ópera de Gounod Faust.

George Benjamins neue Oper beschreibt eindringlich einen durch Liebe hilflosen König – Hannigan und Degout füllen die tiefgründige Musik mit hingebungsvollem Emotionsspiel.

On aurait pu craindre, le temps d’une Maurerische Trauermusik nous confirmant l’inadéquation de l’acoustique du TCE à l’effectif symphonique classique, que le choix de l’économie et de la joliesse, au détriment de l’émotion et de la profondeur, ne vienne blanchir la dureté d’un programme composé de véritables chefs-d’œuvre.

Combinant humour, étrangeté et références aux grands compositeurs du passé, Pinocchio s’adresse à tous, enfants comme adultes, et offre de nombreux niveaux de lecture.

Mit dieser neuerlichen Belgien-Produktion unterstrichen Ensemble und Dirigent ihren Ruf als vorzügliche und lebendige Opernausleuchter.

Merveilleux récital du baryton Stéphane Degout et du pianiste Cédric Tiberghien : premier des lundis musicaux de l'Athénée. Récital entre poésie, suprises et élégance.