Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Cheryl Barker

Brett Dean's Hamlet is an extremely powerful theatrical experience, excelling in all aspects of production, singing and musical values, but is it an opera?

The Perfect American, a fictional account of the final months of Walt Disney’s life, is a visually rhythmic flow of scenic magic on a blended Glass base – gently but harrowingly absorbing.

Martin Lloyd-Evan's highly sensitive production features a show-stealing performance by Richard Burkhard but is marred by problems of orchestral balance.

35 years and many revivals after it was first seen, the late Joachim Herz’s version of Madam Butterfly (“Madama” spelt without the “a” here) is still going. For WNO’s themed series of “Free Spirits”, Caroline Chaney took on the revival director’s mantle. The result was a reliable production lacking in originality but not in warmth.

Salome was a huge, scandalous success at its 1905 première, and stagings of this, Richard Strauss’ third opera, have continued to shock audiences over the past century. This is hardly to be wondered at: after all, the title character’s final monologue ends with her kissing the severed head of John the Baptist, whom she has had executed for spurning her advances.

Korngold’s Die tote Stadt is an extraordinary opera, an often underrated masterpiece of the 20th century. On the face of it, it has a simple plot – the protagonist Paul, unable to overcome the death of his wife, falls in love with another woman, Marietta, similar to his dead wife in many ways.

Faire naviguer les différents protagonistes de cette œuvre dans le huis clos sombre de la demeure de Bly, traiter les émotions de ces différents personnages sous le prisme de leur inconscient et rendre compte d’un réalisme froid tout au long de cet production de The Turn of the screw reprise à l'Opéra national du Rhin.