Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Johannes Leiacker

It's difficult to believe Salzburg could have cast a finer Così in Loy's Covid-reduced production in the Großes Festspielhaus.

John Osborn leads a very successful premiere of Peter Konwitschny's new production of Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots in Dresden

From stylised 16th-century dress to a 1970s sitcom ballet, Konwitschny's Staatsoper staging is full of brilliantly inventive touches, splendidly realised in this excellently sung revival. 

Orchestra and chorus reach great Wagnerian heights in this new production by Christof Loy, a study of an artist in revolt against hypocritical sexual mores.

Peter Konwitschny's production strips away much of the religious symbolism, presenting the difference between Jews and Christians as little more than the dyed colour of their hands. 

Vienna's Theater an der Wien stage a seldom performed opera by Carl Maria von Weber with an excellent cast, orchestra, and chorus.  

Camilla Nylund’s rich, ample voice bloomed in the glorious setting of the sonnet, cosseted by burnished horn playing, in Strauss' unsurpassed operatic farewell to the soprano voice.

Director Peter Konwitschny's staging of Cherubini's Medea critiques rejection and mistreatment of refugees. A strong new German translation and a talented cast make this a must-see.

Johannes Laiacker’s inspired set designs were a perfect example of how a modern setting can avoid being gratuitously iconoclastic.

Two fascinating casts make Peter Konwitschny's stripped-down Traviata a must-see artistic event in Seattle.

This revival of Christof Loy's 2014 production of Alcina launched the New Year at Oper Zürich in magnificent fashion.

Anno Schreier's successful new opera Hamlet is the first of a series of three Shakespeare-inspired offerings from Theater an der Wien this season. 

Christof Loy’s minimalist staging for Khovanshchina at Dutch National Opera has the advantage of clarifying a reputedly fragmented plot. 

Though certainly not the most heartwarming of tales this Christmas season, this is a production one shouldn’t miss.

Konwitschny's bold approach to Rihm's musical dialectic surprises, challenges, and bewilders. The glorious soundscape created in the Felsenreitschule makes this Eroberung von Mexico a unique, unmissable operatic experience. 

The bright colours and childishness of Konwitschny’s production for the Bayerische Staatsoper shock but succeed. The cast and orchestra shine, especially in the final act.

Rolando Villazon's new production of Puccini's La rondine for the Deutsche Oper Berlin charms with 1920s glamour.

Two years ago, when this controversial production by Peter Konwitschny was first seen at English National Opera, I was completely knocked sideways by it. Could it deliver the same emotional blow to the solar plexus this time around?

First class performances from Stephen Gould and Nina Stemme are backed by a magnificent orchestral performance in the Royal Opera's revival of Christof Loy's spartan production.

After his final opera, Falstaff (1893), Verdi founded a home for retired musicians. Director Christof Loy related these two achievements by setting the opera in the nursing home...

Christof Loy’s new production of Falstaff for the Deutsche Oper Berlin is a conundrum. While the opera itself tells a story of comeuppance, Loy’s production seemed to be about the positive physical effects of playing pranks on your neighbors.

Giuseppe Verdi’s Attila is not an opera that one hears often. Composed during his self-styled “galley period” – before he found his mature musical voice with Rigoletto – Attila has inherent musical and dramaturgical weaknesses. With one foot still firmly rooted in bel canto tradition, the numerous cabalettas can be exhausting, even ridiculous, considering the dramatic nature of the text.

​In each case, you know the murder is coming. In each case the music is explosive and closes the opera: there is nothing left to say except Canio's simple words: "La commedia è finita.

Before writing a note of Gogol, composer Lera Auerbach immersed herself in the writer’s complete works and over twenty books written about him. It would take similar efforts to begin to understand this opera: taking us inside the fevered mind of its title character, Gogol is less a biographical narrative set to music than a phantasmagorical, psychological investigation.

Sylvain Cambreling dirigiert einen musikalisch beeindruckenden Król Roger an der Oper Frankfurt.

Leider scheitern die guten Ideen des Regisseurs, Philipp Himmelmann, an der Umsetzung.

Die Neuinszenierung von Bellinis I puritani wird dank der Sopranistin Brenda Rae zu einem unvergesslichen Belcanto-Erlebnis.

Eine temporeiche und stimmgewaltige Darstellung begeistert am Staatstheater Nürnberg.

Cecilia Bartoli sublime l'un des personnages haendeliens parmi les plus sombres et torturés.

In einer nüchternen Inszenierung hat Christof Loy versucht, in Mozarts Le nozze di Figaro vor allem musikalisch neue Akzente zu setzen.

Mit einer grandiosen Vorstellung von Händels Ariodante melden sich die Salzburger Pfingstfestspiele in diesem Jahr einmal mehr zurück und feiern einen beispiellosen Erfolg. Sowohl musikalisch als auch szenisch verspricht die Neuproduktion im Haus für Mozart einen überaus überzeugenden Abend.

Mondän inszeniert wollte der Abend zwar nicht immer ganz abheben, besonders das Orchester begeisterte aber mit viel Italianità.

Verdis Macbeth als Beitrag zum Hieronymus Bosch-Gedenkjahr: Schauriges zu schöner Musik, Inszenierung mit vielen Fragezeichen. 

Brigitte Fassbaender inszeniert im Bockenheimer Depot Brittens erste, lange vergessene Oper als klug unterhaltende Satire mit zielsicheren Pointen, hochmotiviertem Ensemble und einem Orchester unter erschwerten Bedingungen.

Fehlende Spannung in musikalischer wie szenischer Hinsicht konnten bei dieser Wiederaufnahme auch gute Einzelleistungen nicht wettmachen.

Renaissance trifft Moderne, trifft Industriezeitalter. Der Münchner Holländer hat schrille Kontraste zu bieten, bevor er schließlich mit krachender Pyrotechnik endet.

Mit Augenmerk auf die politische Dimension kann die Inszenierung von Halévys La Juive am Nationaltheater Mannheim aufgrund komischer Brechungen und einer gemischten Gesangsleistung nicht überzeugen.

El teatro Campoamor acoge una versión ágil, creíble, y magníficamente ensamblada del clásico de Mozart.

Peter Konwitschnys zeitlose Inszenierung von Puccinis Klassiker wartet mit ausdrucksstarken Bildern auf und setzt dabei auf klassische Personenführung.