Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Nello Santi

You feel you ought not to approve of such directorial extravagance, but catch yourself being drawn into the grand pageant. 

This was a performance that had you lickng your lips for Santi’s return next season with Zeffirelli’s time-honoured take on Aida.

The charm of Gaetano Donizetti’s spirited two-act L’elisir d’amore lies in its mixture of sharp comedy and poignant pathos. Zurich gave us just that.

Netrebko's Violetta is now fuller in body and voice than in her former incarnation. Goodbye to the fresh-faced damsel we saw in Salzburg; hello to a larger-than-life courtesan in her twilight years.

In this staging of Verdi’s  masterpiece, the director reminds us that the ominous epilogue springs from its short prelude.

This production of Norma was definitely the best staging seen at the San Carlo in recent years.

This revival of a 2012 staging by Ferzan Ozpetek tells the story efficiently, while conductor Nello Santi only at times made us experience all the emotional depths this opera contains.

In this production of Andrea Chénier, love, liberty, revolution and death are all ingredients to create strong emotions: with a final ovation for the conductor.

In this anti-realistic, colourful and beautifully played production of Pagliacci, the director extends the concept expressed in the Prologue: clowns are real life people, but also real life people are clowns in a larger play.