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

Livermore updates the scene to the 1930s, but seems to be setting Mussolini's Italians against invading Germans. 

The revival of David McVicar's production of Gounod's Faust provides spectacle and entertainment in spades, with strong performances from Ivan Magrì (Faust) and Teddy Tahu Rhodes (Méphistophélès).

David McVicar's dark and gothic Don Giovanni is revived in Sydney, with stand-out performances from Luca Micheletti as an unapologetic and dashing Don, and Eleanor Lyons as a magnificent Donna Anna

Gale Edwards' popular revival, set in the 1930s Weimar Republic, brings visual delight and showcases Australian-Chinese tenor Kang Wang as Rodolfo.

Rossini's opera is all about art and art lovers in this production by Damiano Michieletto.

A beautiful 17th-century setting does nothing to dim the freshness and relevance of Sir David McVicar's production for Opera Australia.

A brilliantly staged production of Reimann's Ghost Sonata by Opera Australia shows once again that modernist opera can be compelling if a provocative story is rendered by an outstanding cast.

A youthful cast can't save this two-dimensional West Side Story.

A successful concert performance of Umberto Giordano's verismo hit in Sydney, with a trio of international stars. 

Opera Australia delivers a sensational new Elena Kats-Chernin opera about the immensely gifted and troubled Australian painter, Brett Whiteley.

Davide Livermore's new production of Donizetti's Anna Bolena offers moderate pleasures, with solid performances by Ermonela Jaho in the title role, and Carmen Topciu as Jane Seymour.

Graeme Murphy's new Madama Butterfly opens with arrestingly kinky imagery and heavily exploits digital projections thereafter, but the joy of the production is in the uniform excellence of the performers, headed by the outstanding Karah Son in the title role.

A much-loved 1991 production evoking Fellini’s post-war glamour and grime is revived with three talented young principals, including Mongolian baritone Amartuvshin Enkhbat in the title role.

For the first time, a musical comes to the outdoor stage of the annual Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour. 

Gale Edwards' Opera Australia staging of Richard Strauss' bloody opera is revived with Lise Lindstrom in the title role. 

The real triumph of Michael Fabiano's role debut as Werther lay in controlling the bold intensity of his voice in favour of a sweet and lower-key level of passion – a match for Massenet's frequent choice of the cello.

Kentridge’s use of video technology creates another, highly complex, visual score next to Berg’s sonic one.

Amber Wagner delivers a thrilling performance in Opera Australia's revival of Graeme Murphy's Turandot – a spectacular feast for both the ears and eyes.

Having offered a strong feminist reading of Wagner's Ring, could Kasper Holten do the same again for Die Meistersinger? Opera Australia's co-production had moments of excellence, but ultimately left the viewer with more questions than answers

A fine cast led by Maija Kovalevska conveys the timeless beauty and emotion of Puccini’s Parisian melodrama, but the 1930s Berlin setting remains an imperfectly realised transformation.

Turco inspired many a great opera director in the past; understandably, as it offers plenty of splendid comic situations. Simon Phillips' hilarious 2014 production is revived by Opera Australia.

Davide Livermore's digital set for Opera Australia's new production of Aida ushers in a new type of staging to the Sydney Opera House, and backs up a stellar performance from Amber Wagner in the title role.

With her signature role’s coloratura fireworks and dramatic nuance, Jessica Pratt’s Sydney Opera House debut is one to remember.

Remarkable singers and magnificent sets successfully transpose Puccini’s Tosca to Nazi-occupied Rome, bringing home the horror of tyranny and how possible it is to occur.

The quality cast purred, but glorious roars are required to jolt audiences from placid enjoyment of Opera Australia’s gorgeous 24-year-old production of this Verdi classic.

Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour returns with La bohème, in a fine production by Andy Morton, with star turns from Iulia Maria Dan and Ho-Yoon Chung in the lead roles.

Massanet’s Don Quichotte is mounted by Opera Australia, in a production which creaks but is held together by fine singing from Ferruccio Furlanetto and Warwick Fyfe.

Kosky’s The Nose hits Sydney, sweeping the audience along with hallucinogenic energy. Led by the outstanding Martin Winkler and John Tomlinson, singers and musicians deliver a wild evening's entertainment.

An outstanding cast headed by Karah Son in the title role provides a fitting send off for Opera Australia’s much-loved production of Madama Butterfly in Sydney

As clearly visible on all photos, the Sydney Opera House has two “sails”, interconnected major sections. One of them houses concerts, the other operas. Opera performances, however, are not exclusively taking place in the Opera Theatre.

Outstanding performances from Nicole Car and Etienne Dupuis turn Opera Australia's unstaged production of Thaïs into a triumph at Sydney Town Hall.

One of the world’s great Carmens and John Bell’s smart direction is a winning combination for this Opera Australia production.

Splendid performances and a Nazi makeover turns Puccini's political tragedy into a visceral experience.

It's the libretto's equivocation that has denied King Roger the frequency of performance that its music deserves.

Damiano Michieletto's inspired intertwining of the standard double-bill of Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci makes for vivid storytelling, the whole supported by an excellent cast solidly directed by Andrea Licata.

The final instalment of the Melbourne Ring is vividly brought to life by excellent singing, an adaptable set, and committed playing from the pit.

A combination of ingenious sets, truly heroic singing in the title role by Stefan Vinke, and excellence throughout the rest of the cast makes the Melbourne Siegfried an unmissible highlight of the Ring so far.

On a night of technical delays and extraordinary singing, Opera Australia's revival of Die Walküre is particularly memorable for Amber Wagner's Sieglinde and Lise Lindstrom's Brünnhilde.

The revival of Neil Armfield's Melbourne Ring is relaunched with a successful Rheingold, sensitively conducted by Pietari Inkinen, with an especially fine performance from Warwick Fyfe as Alberich.

What a delight to revisit this 60th anniversary production of My Fair Lady in the directorial hands of its original Eliza, Dame Julie Andrews. 

Verdi's most political opera feels particularly relevant in 2016, and the Opera Australia production convinces, thanks to the outstanding George Petean in the title role and an excellent supporting cast.

Not just a jolly romp through the inconstancies of the heart, Sir David McVicar takes Così fan tutte through a dark lesson for lovers while leaving the music ravishingly intact.

A revival of Francesca Zambello's production of Prokofiev's Love for Three Oranges at the Sydney Opera House is a joy, thanks to the antics of Kanen Breen at the head of a strong cast.

Director John Bell's chosen associations for his Carmen with Strindberg's Dance of Death and Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf underlined an emphasis upon the fated couple's joint knowledge that nothing they can do will turn the tsunami that's leading to their deaths.

Chinese dragons, Dalek-like pagoda towers: Opera Australia's harbour-side production of Turandot did not shy away from oriental imagery, leading to a spectacular evening's entertainment.

A relative rarity by Verdi is given an outing at the Sydney Opera House, with excellent performances let down by a disappointing staging. 

A well-worked revival of Elijah Moshinsky's production of Rossini's Barber of Seville offers gales of laughter and vocal delights at the Sydney Opera House, with starring roles for Paolo Bordogna, Anna Dowsley and Warwick Fyfe

Would Britain enjoy 'The Rabbits'? For that's how the new Australian family opera allegorises the colonial Poms who came to this Terra Nullius  Downunder, denying the existence of the native Aborigines - appearing as Marsupials in this opera. 

Beautiful sets and a fine cast led by Guillaume Tourniaire can't quite compensate for the dramatic weaknesses in Opera Australia's new production of Bizet's Les pêcheurs de perles.

Julie Taymor's production maintains the magic of The Magic Flute at Sydney Opera House.