Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Douglas Williams

Once again, the BEMF brings a Baroque opera back to life. Reinhard Keiser’s 1705 Octavia is exceptionally well sung, adroitly staged, designed and danced, with impeccable musicianship.

Tempora mutantur; an inventive programme abut changing times, in the metrical, art-historical, and geo-political senses. 

The young Handel's homage to Counter Reformation Rome, La resurrezione, is effectively brought to life by Opera Atelier with glittering sets and fine, stylish singing.

Audiences return to the Maison de la Radio for Barbara Hannigan and l'Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. 

Despite some fine young voices, a concert staging of The Rake's Progress proves problematic in Hamburg.

Opera Atelier's return to the earliest part of the repertoire with Monteverdi's Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria showcases their strengths in a relatively restrained production anchored by a strong ensemble cast.

Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques perform Alceste, the most recent effort in their almost complete set of Lully's operas. A strong cast and a remarkable chorus complete a successful performance.

A riotous double bill of Pergolesi at the Boston Early Music Festival.

With Lully’s death in 1687 and Louis XIV’s increasing immersion in religious piety under the influence of Madame de Maintenon, the court ceased to exercise a strangle hold on opera.

Salvation sweetness and light in DC's annual Messiah.

Leon Botstein and the American Symphony Orchestra revive Mascagni's Iris in a fully staged version in Frank Gehry's architecturally stunning Richard B Fisher Center at Bard College.

Nicholas McGegan and the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra give new life to a Scarlatti serenata.

Dancers tip-toed in stately procession, while alternately molding into aggressive gnarled warriors, images familiar from amphorae; they presage a clash of forces of destruction, the unfolding of a love story, and a sorcerer’s ravenous desire for control.

Rounding off the holiday weekend almost like an after-dinner cordial, the Boston Early Music Festival presented a pair of Pergolesi intermezzi: La serva padrona and Livietta e Tracollo.

Sasha Waltz’s new production of Monteverdi’s Orfeo saw a fusion of sound and movement at the Muziektheater Amsterdam, with dancers and singers twining together almost indistinguishably.

As Handel made music of John Milton’s poems L’Allegro and il Penseroso , Mark Morris made Handel’s music dance. The 32 scenes of Morris’ ballet breathe with inspiration of figures and designs from watercolours William Blake did for an edition of Milton’s poems.

Even Mikhail Baryshnikov was curious to stop by the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) on Thursday March 1st to the witness the world premiere of Mark Morris’ A Choral Fantasy. The work sets movement to the score of Beethoven’s Fantasy in C minor for piano, chorus, and orchestra, Op. 80.

Tragicomedia presented a jewel-box of baroque cantatas at Gilder Lehrman Hall at the Morgan Library Museum. The elite ensemble, directed by Stephen Stubbs, includes some of America’s finest Baroque musicians, who can improvise in the style as well. Friday evening’s concert also featured soprano Shannon Mercer and bass-baritone Douglas Williams.

In der Lachmuskeln strapazierenden Inszenierung formationseigenen Gilbert Blins gelingt dem BEMF ein Opernspaß, der es absolut verdient, vermehrt sein fantastisches Unwesen treiben zu dürfen.

Barbara Hannigan mène à la baguette cette production de The Rake's Progress à la Philharmonie, où brillent aussi bien les chanteurs du projet Equilibrium que les instrumentistes de l'Orchestre Ludwig.

Die Berliner Philharmoniker und ein strahlendes Sängerensemble lassen Tosca auch ohne Szene wirken.

Ein erlesenes Ensemble unter Leitung von Christophe Rousset verzaubern mit einer gelungenen konzertanten Auffühung der Tragédie en musique Armide.

Jeudi 10 décembre 2015, Christophe Rousset et ses Talens Lyriques secondés du choeur de chambre de Namur interprétaient Armide, le plus apprécié des opéras de Lully. Au milieu d'une distribution globalement satisfaisante, une étoile a brillé de tous ses feux : Marie-Adeline Henry, incarnation éblouissante d'Armide.