Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | William Berger

Visual eye candy, excellent singing and superb Handelian playing by Laurence Cummings and the London Handel Orchestra are marred by poor diction and limited acting expressivity.

Handel’s opera Orlando is famous for the great mad scene at the end of Act 2. Specifically written for the celebrated castrato Senesino, it’s an emotionally powerful ten-minute monologue.

Historically informed baroque gestures and ballet additions: Handel's only operetta gets a rare airing and a musical makeover in Sigried T'Hooft's new production for Gottingen's International Handel Festival.

Robert Carsen's understated elegance on stage counterbalances Puccini’s highly charged melodrama. 

Ludus Baroque, with its handpicked performers, brought the tale of Athalia to spectacular life - the destiny of a bloodstained Queen or the King across the water? You decide!

Closing your eyes while listening, you could easily imagine yourself in a gilt-edged salon, with Her Highness Mademoiselle Marie de Lorraine, Duchess of Guise, peer of France, princess of Joinville, hereditary seneschal of Champagne herself sitting not far from you, enjoying and approving every lovely note.

Ludus Baroque was founded in 1997 by Richard Neville-Towle, the Director of Music at Cannongate Kirk on the Royal Mile, and has built up a reputation for excellence as the group comprises hand-picked specialist Baroque players and singers from around the UK.

Under the title “Monteverdi Ballets”, Spitalfields Music Summer Festival presented a joint collaboration between the Early Opera Company and Avant Garde Dance. The challenge was to merge music and dance coming from two different artistic projects into a single unified product.

In brief introductory remarks, founder and director of Ludus Baroque Richard Neville-Towle outlined three significant features of the performance. The indicated presence of a crib signified that this was to be a devotional performance, and being able to make sense of this is possibly what divides the faithful from the faithless.

As dappled evening sunshine filled the historic Canongate Kirk, near the foot of the Royal Mile, a large audience filled the powder blue-coloured pews under the Colours of the King’s Own Scottish Borderers and the Royal Scots for an evening of music by Handel.

Although I never had the pleasure of attending Garsington Opera in its original setting in Garsington Manor, I was very impressed by their new premises at Wormsley, Buckinghamshire, with their spectacular-looking and also comfortable opera pavilion.

Die Eifersüchteleien und Ränkespiele sorgen bei der konzertanten Aufführung für eine dramatische Achterbahnfahrt, die ein Bühnenbild nicht vermissen lässt.

Les Muffatti präsentiert eine selten(e) gelungene Aufführung der Johannespassion bei den Magdeburger Telemann-Festtagen.