Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Ivan Ludlow

Given a new production by Evgeny Titov, Benjamin's second full-length opera is musically brilliant, but its examination of our inner darkness lacks heart. 

A superb cast of singers is let down by Christoph Marthaler's cold, stilted staging as Reimann's Lear returns to its birthplace.  

Paula Sides as Donna Anna has an appealing sound throughout her range, a hint of spinto power, and gave the vocal performance of the night.

In Bérénice, given its world première at the Opéra Garnier, composer Michael Jarrell revisits Racine's refined tragedy with the help of the inspired voices of Barbara Hannigan and Bo Skovhus.

Heinz Holliger’s Lunea, which recently premiered at the Zurich Opera House, is “not an opera”, or so the ground-breaking Swiss composer contends.

An ultimately disappointing Fauré Requiem gave way to an outrageously funny performance of Poulenc's comic opera Les mamelles de Tirésias with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Ludovic Morlot.

As a very generous birthday present for ‘Accrington’s Finest’, Harrison Birtwistle, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Martin Brabbins pulled out all the stops to give a revelatory performance of the composer’s most Wagnerian opera, Gawain.

Die Hommage an den 2024 verstorbenen ungarischen Komponisten wird zum Großerfolg: Evgeny Titov wartet mit einer schlüssigen Inszenierung auf, und Maxime Pascal steuert mit dem Klangforum Wien viel Atmosphärisches bei. 

En 12 scènes, Giordano Bruno de Francesco Filidei retrace la pensée et la condamnation à mort de ce savant du 16e siècle. Un opéra assez inhabituel dont l’intérêt majeur réside dans l’esthétique musicale, stupéfiante de cohérence et foisonnante de détails raffinés.