Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Florian Simson

What's a director to do while we wait for technology to catch up with the complexities of the human condition?

Baritone Kay Stiefermann steals hearts at the eponymous Count of Luxembourg, in an operetta so charming that neither musical missteps nor a mixed-up staging can sink it.

Stefan Herheim's eagerly awaited production of Berg's Wozzeck distances us from the emotional heart of the tragedy by portraying the story as a hallucinatory death-room experience.

Animated characters are the real stars of an imaginative production of The Magic Flute. 

A well-sung revival of a witty and supremely theatrical production of Strauss’ operatic exposé.

A musically classy, rip-roaring staging of Der Graf von Luxemburg - a seasonal treat at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein.

A fascinating, psychologically penetrating reading of Verdi’s penultimate opera, performed to the highest standards, promises much for the new season at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein. 

A German-Taiwanese co-production of Puccini's final opera plays out the drama as a modern-day nightmare.

Hitchcock's Spellbound meets One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest in Deutsche Oper am Rhein's retelling of Prokofiev's tale of obsession and demonic possesion.

Presenting Das Rheingold and Die Walküre in a single evening is audacious enough. To put on a Ring cycle in a week-end, you have to follow this by doing the same with Siegfried and Götterdämmerung, which requires something even more radical. Opéra de Dijon’s director Laurent Joyeux and dramaturg Stephen Sazio set themselves the task of cutting eight hours of music down to five.

Putting on a Ring cycle is normally considered a major undertaking for any opera company. For a mid-sized provincial opera company, the idea of staging the whole cycle in a weekend seems barely short of insane. But that’s what Opéra de Dijon are doing – Das Rheingold and Die Walküre last night, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung tonight, and it just had to be seen.

Unter fast 40 Romeo-Vertonungen die wohl kürzeste: aus Blachers Komprimierung von Shakespeares Tragödienstoff zieht die Duisburger Neuinszenierung intensive Überzeugungskraft.