Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Vladislav Sulimsky

Ted Huffman brings some interesting ideas to his first Glyndebourne production. Excellent singing is let down by indifferent physical acting.

Director Dmitri Tcherniakov and a talented cast do everything to make Tchaikovsky’s opera work in Amsterdam, but problematic elements persist. 

Krzysztof Warlikowski’s ghoulish production has the Macbeths’ killing spree spring from their infertility.

Sir Mark Elder conducts The Hallé in a stirring semi-staged production of Madama Butterfly.

The Baden-Baden Easter Festival offers a memorable production of Pique Dame with excellent musical performances convincing in Leiser and Caurier's updating of the plot.

Christof Loy would seem to be the perfect director for Covid-era opera, his stripped back production of Verdi's rare middle period opera directed remotely from Austria.

This is no Liederabend with singers taking their turn to file up to the piano. It’s a fully staged drama in which baritone Vladislav Sulimsky’s character reflects on his past loves and losses.

During the “Salce” and “Ave Maria” in Act Four Bezsmertna turned this to magical effect, thinning out and floating her shimmering soprano into gossamer threads.

This year’s NTR ZaterdagMatinee concert series in Amsterdam kicked off with a Boris Godunov that left nothing to be desired.

Mariss Jansons and the Vienna Philharmonic do the real storytelling as Hans Neuenfels' staging underwhelms.

Oper Stuttgart’s new production of The Queen of Spades (Pique-Dame) pushes a directorial tendency to update opera to a modern setting to an extreme.

Valery Gergiev conducts the Mariinsky Opera in a vocally strong Das Rheingold, a promising beginning to Edinburgh International Festival’s Ring in concert over the coming years.

Calixto Bieito inszeniert Mussorgskys unvollendete Oper als tödliches Machtgerangel verschiedener Gruppen. Bei der Gestaltung des Schlusses leistet er sich Freiheiten, die grenzwertig sind.

Krzysztof Warlikowsi inszeniert Weinbergs Oper ebenso klar wie packend, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla inspiriert die Wiener Philharmoniker zur Höchstleistung und auch das Sängerensemble bietet Topqualität. 

Calixto Bieito will in seiner Neuadaption von Verdis wohl bekanntester Oper viel und erreicht damit so ziemlich nichts. Zum Glück gibt es Elīna Garanča.