Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Peter Kálmán

An enchanting production, imaginative, amusing and suitable for children of all ages.

A Ring cycle of sustained excellence closes with telling contributions from Foster, Vinke and Pesendorfer in the three lead roles.

Müpa's Ring sees all-round musical excellence for a third night in row, which will be remembered more than the various distracting miscues in the staging.

Hartmut Schörghofer's updated concert staging receives strong singing from everyone and a thrilling orchestral performance.

Laurent Pelly’s elegant musical stave production of Il barbiere di Siviglia, from the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, charms and delights at the Edinburgh International Festival.

The final instalment of the Hong Kong Philharmonic's Ring cycle merits the orchestra joining the international big league. 

In one of Bartoli's rare appearances on stage in the UK, she gave an utterly compelling performance as opera's ultimate woman scorned.

A recent production of Vincenzo Bellini’s Norma starred Cecilia Bartoli, the great mezzo who lives close by, and whom the Zürcher like to claim as one of their own.

“Acting is the expression of a neurotic impulse. It’s a bum’s life,” stated the late, great Marlon Brando. Felix Breisach took this idea to heart when staging his modernized Figaro in a mental institution.

Peter Stein stages Schubert's problem opera Fierrabras in a world of cardboard knights. This last opera of the Salzburg Festival is well sung, but you have to ask: is the last always the best?

Verdi’s Otello opens with a fierce storm raging over Cyprus. In Rossini’s version, composed 71 years earlier in 1816, the composer eschewed the Cypriot setting entirely and the storm doesn’t take place until Act III, although last night a mighty crack of thunder resounded over the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées as the audience filed into the opera house. 

It often takes time to adjust to Nikolaus Harnoncourt's tempi, but this concert performance of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro enabled the audience to discover new colours in a well known score. 

A year of theatre refurbishment leaves Scottish Opera with only three and half full productions this season, so the spotlight turned firmly onto this Don Giovanni from director Sir Thomas Allen, designer Simon Higlett and lighting designer Mark Jonathan.

When Jean-Christophe Spinosi stepped onto the podium to conduct Le Comte Ory that night, he didn’t wait for his applause to cease, but instantly cued a hearty forte from the Ensemble Matheus, and consequently a few incredulous looks from the audience.

Giulio Cesare, an opera populated with manipulative characters that only interact with each other when shared interests are at stake, is a receptive vessel for a scornful indictment of imperialism and the dubious alliances it forges.

Le chef de l'Ensemble Matheus dirige une Italienne à Alger pleine de verve et de fantaisie, et donne à cette version de concert l'entrain irrésistible d'une représentation scénique. 

Dernier spectacle proposé dans l'éphémère Opéra des Nations, Viva la mamma ! est un formidable opéra dans l'opéra. La production doit beaucoup à ses deux Laurent, Pelly et Naouri.

Ein frisches Rossini-Opernerlebnis, das nur haarscharf an der Höchstwertung vorbeischrammt. Dennoch zählt diese Produktion mit Solisten und Le Cercle de l'Harmonie zu einem meiner Highlights des Jahres.

La nouvelle mise en scène de Laurent Pelly fait ses grands débuts. Distribution impeccable pour une production qui ne se cantonne pas à la légèreté de l'intrigue.

On ne peut demeurer indifférent à cette Norma, qui a l’immense mérite d’innover et ce faisant, de démontrer que l’opéra est bel et bien un art vivant.

Cecilia Bartoli, I Barocchisti et les enfants terribles de mise en scène : Patrice Caurier et Moshe Leiser donnent à voir et à entendre une production d'anthologie de Norma à l'Opéra de Monte-Carlo. 

Cecilia Bartoli zeigt, dass auch eine konzertante Aufführung mithilfe gekonnter Schauspielkunst zu einem überaus überzeugenden Konzerterlebnis werden kann.