Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Stuart Skelton

The Philadelphia Orchestra offers a musically and dramatically urgent performance of Wagner’s complete opera, buoyed by world-class soloists.

Wotan's predicaments provide Sydney's victory: Chief Conductor Simone Young has her musicians on some of their best form in recent years, with only a few question marks over an excellent concert performance.

Magnificent conducting from Robin Ticciati and fine singers make Glyndebourne's latest revival of Lehnhoff’s production musically rewarding, but cerebral philosophical elevation overpowers the earthy reality of lust and love.

Mahler's epic five-movement symphonic song cycle is performed by a chamber ensemble with mixed results.

The pure magic of Ádám Fischer and the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra delights with two brilliant leads, but others disappoint on the second day of Müpa's Ring.

Bayrischer Staatsoper’s revival of Warlikowski’s static production of Tristan und Isolde featured a sensational role debut of Elena Pankratova as Isolde.

The Bayerische Staatsoper's revival of a controversial production containing Georg Baselitz’s artwork succeeds with strong musical performances led by veterans of Wagnerian operas.

The Festival d'Aix-en-Provence gives us a definitive performance of Wagner's opera – but for listening only.

Although Damiano Michieletto's new production resembles an expensive drama workshop, it’s the marvellous performances that make this such a moving Jenůfa.

The final song seemed to last both an eternity and no time at all.

Six excellent singers bring out the best in Wagner's dramatic narrative, marred only by a Ride of the Valkyries that fails to convince.

Zubin Mehta conducts Verdi's Otello in an iconic Robert Wilson production of stylized theater where less is more. The effect was mesmerizing.  

Even in a flawed performance, The Song of the Earth fills the hearer with its life-affirming carpe diem message.

The chance to watch their finely gauged interpretation unfold on the Royal Festival Hall platform was a privilege.

When it comes to the title role, Bartlett Sher's non-interventionist production misses the core of the character. 

Edward Gardner opens the Hallé's Thursday series with dramatic Strauss and Janáček.

Stuart Skelton and Sarah Connolly were the stars of the evening, lifting the performance to a new level in what Leonard Bernstein called Mahler’s “greatest symphony”.

We start with a triumphant Royal Opera debut from Stuart Skelton, we close with Nina Stemme at her finest; a thrilling orchestral performance links the two. A memorable Walküre.

Wagner is a rare bird in Perth; the second *Tristan und Isolde* in 12 years worth the wait, no less for being a concert performance, and for bringing Skelton's masterful interpretation to an Australian audience

Chung's mastery of orchestral colour and texture came into its own, the brooding introduction to Act 2 making for a harrowingly apocalyptic representation of tyranny.

After staged performances in Baden Baden, the Berlin Phil's Parsifal is presented in concert at the Philharmonie, with a couple of key cast changes. 

The double choir triumphs in the MSO’s massive, mostly successful attack on an English choral masterpiece all too rarely performed in Australia.

A celebration of composer, soloist and orchestral excellence in an eclectic, if slightly eccentric, gala opening program to launch the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra's 2018 season.

Stuart Skelton’s visceral Peter Grimes is matched by a strong cast with thrilling playing and singing from the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra under Edward Gardner.

Skelton's Florestan provides the power in a refined, elegant performance that brings out the beauty in Beethoven's score.

Munich revived a thoughtful modern production of Janáček's Jenůfa, with fine orchestral direction and strong singing doing full justice to the rich score.

At Carnegie Hall the MET orchestra proves that, temporarily rudderless, it's still a top ensemble

This Peter Grimes was a tale of two talents: the conductor and the star.

An evening of heavy-hitting, late Romantic symphonic and operatic repertoire by Bruckner and Wagner that was rich in artistry, if a little overwhelming for some.

Director Mariusz Treliński’s previous work at the Met, in conjunction with Boris Kudlicka’s sets and Bartek Macias’ videos, was a double bill of Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta and Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle.

These two Manchester-based choirs formed a formidable partnership for one of the most gruelling choral works in the repertoire. The four soloists, however distinguished as individuals, produced mixed results.

English National Opera's new Tristan is at its best when responding to Anish Kapoor's stunning stage sculptures.

Sir Simon and Berln Philharmonic triumphed in a thought-provoking production of Tristan und Isolde with a fine ensemble of singers.

Romance and Treachery in a Grand Season Finale for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra

The benefits of opera in concert are felt in Manchester with the BBC Philharmonic, with a performance of Beethoven's only opera, Fidelio. 

“Beware, my Lord, of jealousy” warns Iago, planting the seed of doubt in Otello’s mind. Beware, too, the dangers of preconceptions. Keen anticipation of this new production of Verdi’s Otello was tempered by the prospect of David Alden as director.

Rachmaninov's The Bells proved the highlight of Prom 43, with fabulous soloists and huge choral forces who stole the show in the third movement.

Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas deserves credit for this excellent semi-staged version of Britten's Peter Grimes performed with the San Francisco Symphony at Davies Symphony Hall.

Tony Pappano’s recipe for a concert programme: take a 20th century Italian one act opera, follow it with a romantic symphony chopped in half, then throw in a related German aria; play without a break. It may sound like a train wreck in the making, but the result was a triumph.

Edward Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius tells the story of a pious man’s death, his travels through Purgatory and finally being accepted into Heaven. It is perhaps not the most dramatic of tales, but one filled with a sense of redemption and intense spirituality. 

In the revival of David Alden's Peter Grimes at English National Opera, the singing is excellent, the orchestral performance is out of the top drawer and the staging hardly puts a foot wrong.

Peter Grimes may deserve the place it has gained in the operatic canon, but it’s not a work without problems.

In his production of Fidelio for English National Opera, director Calixto Bieito sets out to completely contradict the work’s central tenet.

The Berliner Philharmoniker may be the world’s business-savviest orchestra. From the handsome program booklets printed on thick, color-rich stock (3€ instead of the customary 2€), to the Sony-sponsored Digital Concert Hall (where one can buy “tickets” to access past and present BP videos), even down to the gold trim on my ticket, this orchestra amply demonstrates its awareness of its reputation as

After Sunday night’s breathtaking Das Rheingold, it was difficult to imagine Die Walküre could be more beautiful or committed. Seattle Opera outdid themselves with this second installment of the Ring cycle, which featured energetic playing and singing, gorgeous stage pictures, and devastatingly believable acting from all of the singers.

There’s something quite strongly “neoclassical” about the whole historically-informed performance movement. Someone like Sir John Eliot Gardiner, who has championed the use of detailed historical knowledge of performance practice and instruments, has never actually been attempting to transport us all back to the 18th century. That would be futile, obviously.

I have always been skeptical of concert performances of operas. Operas are written to be acted, and the staging is needed to complement the music. This is what I thought before I saw this performance of Ashkenazy conducting the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs and Sydney Children’s Choir in Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades.

Willy Decker’s production of Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes, which originated at La Monnaie in Brussels in 1994 and was revived at London’s Royal Opera House in 2004 and 2011, has now reached Tokyo. The work opened the new season of the New National Theatre Tokyo, the capital’s main opera house, currently celebrating its 15th anniversary.

With most of the original cast of English National Opera's critically acclaimed production returning to the Royal Albert Hall to perform Britten's Peter Grimes for the BBC Proms, this was a performance of which much of the audience had high expectations. For the most part, these were met and, on occasion, exceeded.