Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Dutch National Opera

Lotte de Beer’s Il barbiere di Siviglia for Dutch National Opera seems a surprisingly traditional spectacle... although it does come with a twist.

Katie Mitchell's second production of Jenůfa is a straightforward, effective reading of the libretto well supported by excellent singing actors.

Back for its third run at Dutch National Opera, with a satisfying cast, McBurney's staging wins new converts. 

Selectively unearthed from current critical editions, this fabulously performed new Hoffmann plumbs the murky depths of its antihero’s psyche.

The transfer of last year's Clemenza di Tito from Salzburg delights and irritates in equal measure.

An exemplary cast, an opulent orchestra and unforgettable images in Arnold Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder.

In a successfully streamlined staging, Stefano Landi’s obscure, overpopulated opera got the royal treatment by a superior cast and orchestra.

What is the link between Bernstein’s criticism of American consumerism and MacMillan's biblical tale?

Ingo Metzmacher leads a musically formidable performance of Hans Werner Henze’s shipwreck oratorio. Romeo Castellucci’s staging engages the senses but remains emotionally distant.

Virtuoso modern stagecraft and a fine cast combine in a very enjoyable, present-day Rake’s Progress.

A strong cast, a lyrically simmering orchestra and lucid staging make this a Tristan und Isolde to treasure.

Gifted conductor Andrea Battistoni and a vocally seductive cast made this revival of Benedict Andrews’s flawed La bohème a musical triumph.

An unlikely coupling of one-act operas by Zemlinsky and Puccini bears fruit in a staging that reveals their thematic parallels while leaving their obvious differences on show.

Cappella Mediterranea blows life into Eliogabalo’s dark carnival as imagined by Thomas Jolly.

An able cast sings in Christof Loy’s non-interventionist and insightful production of Verdi’s panoramic tragedy, conducted with vivid detail by Michele Mariotti.

In an elegant new production by Ivo van Hove, Malin Byström portrays a graceful, erotic Salome and the RCO play with sensuous lyricism under Daniele Gatti.

Until now I have been fairly sceptical about theatrical stagings of oratorios and other sacred works, so I was curious but cautious about the staging of Monteverdi's Vespers at the Holland Festival.

Staged at Dutch National Opera’s workshop, Madrigals reduces the distance between public and performers and creates a real sensorial experience. 

Damiano Michieletto’s intriguing production of Rigoletto is set in a mental hospital, and sidelines emotion in favour of analysis. The singing, on the other hand, is heartfelt and exciting.

Mohammed Fairouz’s second opera, The New Prince, premiered in Amsterdam, is directed by Lotte de Beer as a colourful, dizzyingly fast-paced  revue.

Clarity and mounting horror in the orchestra pit, the full truth and ugliness of the human condition onstage. Dutch National Opera’s new production of Wozzeck is stomach-churning for all the right reasons.

Tcherniakov's moving production delves into the psychological rather than revelling in the spectacular. 

The revival of this nine-year-old production feels dated, but its three Rs – Ruiten, Rose and Rhorer – make it a worthwhile evening.

With its monumental sets designed by Anish Kapoor, Pierre Audi’s abstract Parsifal at Dutch National Opera is spectacular, led by the excellent Christopher Ventris, with Günther Groissböck shining in his role debut as Gurnemanz. 

Concerto Köln, honed to perfection, and an accomplished cast star in Claus Guth's tense, dark staging of Handel's Jephtha. 

An aesthetically handsome but cold and distant staging mars the long-awaited return of  Eva-Maria Westbroek as Puccini’s heroine at Dutch National Opera.

The singing is the main attraction in Dutch National Opera’s Le nozze di Figaro, but this new production is also entertaining and looks good enough to eat.

Louis Andriessen’s new opera is a masterly expedition into the grand and grotesque mind of Athanasius Kircher, polymath and fantastist, but it is hampered by a clumsy libretto.

The role of the outsider struck a chord with Tchaikovsky, whose homosexuality alienated him from society. Stefan Herheim takes that identification as the central idea in his remarkable new production at Dutch National Opera.

The Netherlands Chamber Orchestra was in glittering form, while strong singing and acting enhanced each other in the evocative woodland of Claus Guth’s Don Giovanni.

The concept of bringing opera and ballet together in an abstract production is interesting, but Sasha Waltz creates a cold universe that fails to convey strong emotions.

Soprano Miah Persson is the riveting protagonist in Michel van der Aa’s genre-crossing new opera, a fascinating revisiting of a tragic event.

Young singers, musicians and designers in this Matrimonio segreto co-produced by the three main opera companies in the Netherlands show that, on the stage and in the pit at least, the future of opera is bright.

Philippe Jaroussky stars in a new Kaija Saariaho—Peter Sellars collaboration: Only the Sound Remains. Not since Written on Skin has modern opera thrilled with such intensity.