Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Derek Clark

Scottish Opera’s production of Philip Glass and Christopher Hampton's The Trial says less about Kafka’s vision of an absurd world and more about the absurdity of contemporary operatic conventions.

Martin Lloyd Evans returns to Scottish Opera direct a visually rich and lively Mikado. Richard Suart is a veteran Ko-Ko with no-one safe from his Little List as it changes for every performance.

Two Russian Tales: Stravinsky’s Mavra and Walton’s The Bear are an unexpected glittering delight at The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s Opera Studio in Glasgow. 

Scottish Opera revives Sir David McVicar's Madama Butterfly. It still looks wonderful. The music, players and singers tell the harrowing story magnificently.

The most Scottish of operas, Verdi's Macbeth, makes big demands on its soloists and is packed with choruses, so it was interesting to see how Scottish Opera's production managed with only seven singers and a chamber orchestra.

To end the 2012/13 season, Scottish Opera has teamed up with the D’Oyly Carte Company to create a crisp new production of The Pirates of Penzance, which heads off to England and Wales after touring Scotland.