Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | John Osborn

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

Plasson shows all his experience; Lavaudant surprises and delights with his direction; a strong cast sing their hearts out. Who can ask for more?

The Mediterranean setting of Auber's work is recreated by director Giorgio Barberio Corsetti with its intriguing teatro-immagine, where video projections and virtual reality are predominant.

Suggesting that Otello was a migrant, like modern refugees, was not a great staging idea for a production which could count on an high-rate vocal cast.

In one of Bartoli's rare appearances on stage in the UK, she gave an utterly compelling performance as opera's ultimate woman scorned.

Despite starry bel canto experts such as Joyce DiDonato, Lawrence Brownlee and maestro Michele Mariotti, a 2013 Paul Curran staging of Rossini’s La donna del lago reads vacuous on The Metropolitan Opera stage.

A recent production of Vincenzo Bellini’s Norma starred Cecilia Bartoli, the great mezzo who lives close by, and whom the Zürcher like to claim as one of their own.

A striking staging of Rossini's Guillaume Tell at the Grand Théâtre in Geneva: well cast, beautifully sung and impeccably choreographed.

Sadly, Damiano Michieletto and Antonio Pappano's production is more likely to be remembered for its failings – the awful rape scene, its dullness, plus a list of annoying details too long to mention – than for its musical excellence. It’s worth seeing to get a feel of both.

The task sounded Herculean: turning Benvenuto Cellini, that reputedly difficult, flawed work by Berlioz, into an utterly entertaining show that renders justice to its youthfully energetic music. This is what Terry Gilliam manages to pull off... and it is nothing short of miraculous.

A menacing rather than a bucolic setting for The Met's new production of La donna del lago, but the proof is in the singing... 

At the 2014 Edinburgh International Festival, Gianandrea Noseda leads the Teatro Regio Torino in a concert performance of Rossini's William Tell that offers enormous variety without quite hitting the bull's eye.

Verdi’s Otello opens with a fierce storm raging over Cyprus. In Rossini’s version, composed 71 years earlier in 1816, the composer eschewed the Cypriot setting entirely and the storm doesn’t take place until Act III, although last night a mighty crack of thunder resounded over the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées as the audience filed into the opera house. 

The Netherlands Opera’s production of William Tell, directed by Pierre Audi, has proved a daunting endeavor, captivating the audience through its colorful treatment of Rossini’s final opera. From the cast of characters on stage and the musicians of the orchestra to the sound, lighting, stage and costume departments, the roughly four-and-a-half-hour event couldn’t have been more stimulating.

On Saturday night, Antonio Pappano and his Roman orchestra and chorus, the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, brought us the first opera of the 2011 Proms- Gioachino Rossini's William Tell.

Rossini's The Barber of Seville has been his most enduringly well-loved opera. It's in the top ten of operas performed worldwide today, and it has stayed at the top of the most-played lists even when many of his other works were little played.

Nouvelle production du rare opéra de Berlioz, Benvenuto Cellini, à l'Opéra Bastille. Mise en scène spectaculaire de Terry Gilliam.

Point de cujus regio ejus religio au Capitole pour l’œuvre de Meyerbeer, illustrant la vie de Jean de Leyde d’après les écrits voltairiens. Saisi et bloqué dans la violence des guerres entre l’ancienne et la nouvelle religion, l’épisode est mis en scène de façon grandiose pour cette dernière et nouvelle production de la saison lyrique toulousaine. 

Die Bayerische Staatsoper eröffnet mit einer etwas handzahmen Inszenierung vom Fromental Halévys La Juive die Opernfestspiele 2016.

Après dix ans d’absence, La Somnanbula de Bellini, opéra composé en 1830 et surfant sur la vague du romantisme et des sciences occultes, est enfin reprise au Théâtre des Champs-Élysées avec un distribution dominée par Sabine Devieilhe, touchante et sublime Amina.

Rossinis Otello begeistert im Theater an der Wien mit packendem Kammerspiel und fabelhafter Besetzung.

El Gran Teatre del Liceu presenta, ante una gran expectación, Benvenuto Cellini de la mano de Terry Gilliam. Tras una intensa campaña promocional, asistimos a un gran éxito de la temporada, con Josep Pons en la dirección musical y John Osborn y Kathryn Lewek en los roles principales.

La baguette d’Evelino Pidò transforme l’Opéra de Lyon en sanctuaire du bel canto dans l’œuvre de Rossini.