Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Cathy-Di Zhang

A rare 17th-century English Baroque spectacular, designed to delight the Restoration crowd, is given a contemporary twist in Sydney. 

Yaron Lifschitz mesmerises from the opening tableaux’s row of candles in his Purcell staging for Opera Australia, featuring Circa, a Brisbane-based circus company. 

Dean Bryant's production of Leonard Bernstein’s operetta leans more towards musical theatre, blending French period costumes with weak attempts at Aussie humour. 

Andrei Kymach and Yuri Kissin deliver standout Australian debuts in a revival of Sir David McVicar's dark, unshrinking Don Giovanni.

Erin Helyard and his cast bring terrifically strong musical values to Charpentier's Médée, but Justin Way's production falters. 

In arguably its best production to date, theatre luminary Neil Armfield combines with Pinchgut and Erin Helyard for the first time to deliver this electrifying production of Rameau's comic masterpiece, Platée.

Royal Academy Opera's thoroughly competent Suor Angelica precedes a fabulously entertaining Gianni Schicchi, with a top drawer performance from Haobin Wang in the title role.

Over the years, I’ve generally found performances at Royal Academy Opera to be enjoyable and straightforward. This production of Cendrillon went rather beyond that.