Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Nikolay Borchev

There is magic aplenty in director Stefan Herheim’s bold recontextualization of Gian Carlo Menotti's holiday opera. 

The final day of Oxford Lieder's 80-event festival was framed by two recitals taking us from the world of German folklore andDes Knaben Wunderhorn, to the pain and drama of romantic entanglements. 

Herheim pulls us in unexpected directions, makes us laugh and makes us think as we enjoy fine Rossinian music and singing in Opéra de Lyon's production.

Though straightforward in concept, Oper Köln's production of the one-act opera written in the Theresienstadt concentration camp brought the opera's profound themes to the surface in an excellently sung performance.

Barrie Kosky’s clever direction enlivens a Strauss rarity at the Bayerische Staatsoper but the minimalist stage setting sinks HMS Schweigsame Frau.

Where to place Wagner’s first opera Die Feen? Not a typical comedy, but it’s also not a tragedy. Oper Leipzig's powerful production is one to fall in love with. 

An opera that pokes fun at opera seria? An opera that features backstage preparations for a show, followed by an opera within an opera? No, it’s not Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos. 

Jane Archibald and Ruxandra Donose provide a compelling prologue to Ariadne auf Naxos, while Karita Mattila's majestic performance lights up the opera seria second half.

There's much to recommend this Turco, including stunning vocal fireworks by Olga Peretyatko and moments of comedic gold in the staging. But this production also reinforces some ugly racial and gender stereotypes.

Matrimony, divorce, Germany's next top model and superb voices - this Munich production promises an exciting evening.

Shadow puppet serpents and policemen in tutus: Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier's production of Die Zauberflöte is graced with a strong cast. 

Béatrice et Bénédict is Hector Berlioz’s last work; he wrote it between 1860 and 1862 for the theatre that patron Edouard Bénazet had built in Baden-Baden, then Germany’s most chic health resort.

Shortly after Rossini's success with The Barber of Seville came La Cenerentola, a reworking of the Cinderella fairy tale, but with a little less magic, and a lot more worldly comedy. It was an instant success and further established the 25-year-old Rossini as one of the greatest Italian opera composers of his day.

Carmen is one of the most frequently performed operas in the world, and with such a variety of interpretations out there it is always difficult to come up with a new one which is simultaneously inventive and effective.

Souveräne Orfeo Orchestra und Purcell Choir sowie virtuose Solisten halten ein überzeugend theatralisches Plädoyer für eine häufigere Aufführung dieses herrlichen Oratoriums.

Pour trois représentations, le Staatsoper Unter den Linden hisse le drapeau du baroque en affichant la désormais célèbre mise en scène de Didon et Énée par la chorégraphe allemande Sasha Waltz. 

Christopher Alden trae al Teatro Real de Madrid una Parténope al estilo art decó dinámica de la que supo exprimir toda su comicidad.

Christian Thielemann bildet mit der Staatskapelle das ideale Fundament für eine musikalische Meisterleistung.

L'opéra de Korngold se dévoile à La Monnaie dans une mise en scène grandiose de Mariusz Treliński, mêlant le cauchemar et la perversion à la tendresse et à la rédemption.

La madurez del Dido & Aeneas de Sasha Waltz hilvana ópera y danza en trazos invisibles que erizan la piel y recrea un relato legendario con aires de vanguardia.

Depravación, lujuria y extravagancia se imponen en el Teatro Real de la mano de David Alden para mostrarnos la hermosa música de Cavalli.

À l'Auditorium, David Zinman était invité à diriger l'Orchestre National de Lyon dans le Requiem allemand de Johannes Brahms, précédé de la rare Sinfonia da Requiem de Benjamin Britten.

La nouvelle mise en scène de Stefan Herheim se joue de tout pathos et convoque une esthétique hilarante, située entre la parodie de Disney et l’humour acerbe des Monty Python.

Malgré son évident intérêt musical, La Calisto a jusqu’ici attiré l’attention des metteurs en scène avant tout pour les jeux sur les registres et le(s) genre(s) que le livret de Giovanni Faustini, basé sur les Métamorphoses, laissait entrevoir.