Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Gordon Bintner

Rory Kinnear directs a minimally semi-staged performance of Debussy's problematic opera at Snape Maltings, but Ryan Wigglesworth and the BBC Scottish SO provide the detail. 

Excellent performances cannot turn a conventional production of Massenet’s Werther into a dramatic experience for the 21st century. 

Amy Lane’s production of Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette at the COC is eye-catching and enjoyable but doesn’t offer the same level of insight as her Faust last season. 

Siobhan Stagg is an outstanding Susanna in a strongly cast and well produced Marriage of Figaro at the Sydney Opera House

Lyric Opera of Chicago revives its diverting and divisive 2015 original production by Barbara Gaines, who does it like a Shakespearean sex farce. 

The Royal Opera's season opener is a welcome return for Tchaikovsky's opera after nine years, and a house debut for American director Ted Huffman.

Kasper Holten’s much travelled and spectacular Don Giovanni gets a fresh and lively remount at Toronto’s Four Seasons Centre from a young cast headed up by Gordon Bintner. 

Berlioz' oratorio provides a welcome alternative to the usual Christmastime Messiah at the Maison symphonique. 

The star tenor is clearly under the weather, but the young house-favourite mezzo shines in an impressive role debut in a revival of Benoît Jacquot's cinematic staging. 

The COC revival of its 2016 production of Le nozze di Figaro is still rooted in Claus Guth’s gloomy Scandinavia but it’s lightened up to become much sexier and funnier.

The COC’s revival of The Magic Flute is mostly played for laughs and makes an enjoyable, if undemanding, evening.

In the expert hands of both director Warlikowski and conductor Kent Nagano, the sequel to Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti proves to be even darker and more dramatic.

Salzburg's new staging of Enescu's operatic epic Oedipe is a visual and musical triumph.

Robert Carsen's Eugene Onegin was binned by the Met but works wonderfully in its revival by the Canadian Opera Company COC with high class singing and acting from a young, engaging cast.

Camilla Nylund’s rich, ample voice bloomed in the glorious setting of the sonnet, cosseted by burnished horn playing, in Strauss' unsurpassed operatic farewell to the soprano voice.

It was no Christmas miracle, but the OSM's technically strong Bach concert brought a dignified kind of cheer to the most wonderful time of the year.

The children's Barber of Seville is too severely cut to have any substance, but fabulous playing and conducting, stellar young soloists, and an imaginative staging make it a fun afternoon.

Manon was not only central to Jules Massenet’s claim to international celebrity after its creation in 1884, it remains at the heart of the operatic repertoire and Massenet’s popularity today. Manon returned to the stage of L’Opéra de Montréal on 18 May after a lengthy absence to close the company’s 2012/13 season.

Le metteur en scène fait résonner le sens universel et multiple de l'œuvre de Debussy, dans une production excellente sur tous les plans, de la direction musicale (Antonello Manacorda) à la distribution.

La reprise de la mise en scène chorégraphiée d'Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, créée en 2017, échoue à convaincre – au contraire de la direction musicale captivante de Pablo Heras-Casado.

Distribution exemplaire (dont Lea Desandre dans le rôle-titre), orchestre, chœur et chef aux petits oignons, mise en scène intelligente : le génial opéra de Charpentier fait une grandiose entrée au répertoire de la Grande Boutique.

Das Opernhaus des Jahres präsentiert zwei Werke des Barockkomponisten Pergolesi.

La très attendue mise en scène de La flûte enchantée de Mozart au Festival d'opéra de Québec a valu un triomphe au metteur en scène Robert Lepage, qui a procédé à un véritable dépoussièrage de l'œuvre. 

Wie üblich beendete eine weiter konzertante Oper den Opernreigen der diesjährigen Salzburger Festspiele und in diesem Jahr war dabei Donizettis Attentäter-Drama Lucrezia Borgia zu erleben. Der Belcanto-Klassiker begeisterte mit mitreißenden Melodien und hervorragenden Solisten.

La production de Don Giovanni au Festival de Beaune s'est révélée plus intéressante sur le plan dramatique que sur le plan vocal.

Grandiose Bilder und die exzellente musikalische Umsetzung bescheren dem Publikum einen insgesamt beeindruckenden Opernabend.

Minimalistisch im Bühnenbild aber groß im Klang: Die Salzburger Osterfestspiele wurden mit einem gemischt aufgenommem Otello begonnen, wobei Röschmann als Desdemona durchweg überzeugte.