Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Kathleen Kim

Is it possible to have a minor success on every level? Kevin Puts' The Hours underwhelms in its world premiere production at the Metropolitan Opera. 

Laurent Pelly’s staging provided some of the most memorable moments in this performance of Cendrillon. 

“Out of this wood do not desire to go!” Tytania orders Bottom. Glyndebourne's revival of Peter Hall's classic production of A Midsummer Night's Dream is eerily enchanting, weaving its spell right from the queasy double bass glissandos, which slither into Britten's score.

An amiable revival of John Dexter's Die Entführung at The Metropolitan Opera makes Mozart’s Singspiel accessible and genial.

James Robinson's production of Adams' Nixon in China hits its stride at San Diego Opera. 

Love and death, jealousy and revenge, assassination and intrigue, culminating in a dazzle of song, dance, and a shower of sparkling gold: San Diego's A Masked Ball has it all.

This is the one Britten work scheduled by the Metropolitan Opera this year, in Tim Albery’s production from 1996, revived most recently in 2002. The psychological designs are infused with such colour that the staging in no way shows its age.

Verdi experts regularly name Un ballo in maschera to be one of his finest works. In spite of this, it’s never reached the heights of popularity of La Traviata or Rigoletto, so a new production by an acclaimed director for a major opera house is a notable event. We watched David Alden’s New York Ballo from the comfort of a London cinema under the Met’s Live in HD series.

Read our review of David Alden’s production of Verdi­'s Un Ballo in Maschera in its 2012 broadcast from the Met Opera in New York. 

Every opera should have at least one of those “wow” moments that lift you out of your seat and have you singing them in your head on the way home.

Read our review of Peter Sellars' production of Nixon in China by John Adams, in its 2011 broadcast from the Met Opera in New York.

The Strauss opera Ariadne auf Naxos was inspired by the Moliere play The Middle-Class Gentleman. The richest man in Vienna has arranged for two entertainments--one a serious opera composed by a young man just for the occasion, and the other an Italian comedy group. He decides at the last minute to combine the two into one entertainment. If he were a proper gentleman, he would know better.

Tumblers and fire jugglers in rainbow colors. Singing nymphs soaring for stories into the air. Arias deeply dramatic and broadly comic. The Metropolitan Opera’s interpretation of Ariadne auf Naxos by Richard Strauss is a magical mashup of modern and classic, seria and buffa, technique and technology that pleases but falls short of terrific for this reviewer.

By all rights, Agrippina should be a tragedy. It begins with news of Claudius' death and ends with a roll call of doom, with political intrigue, power struggles, infidelity and dysfunction filling in the blanks. The Roman Empire is rife with opera fodder, and operas are rife with tales of Greek gods and Roman heroes (and anti-heroes).

“Hate breeds hate.” I cannot possibly count all the times that I have heard this alarmingly true statement during my entire lifetime be it from my parents, mentors, or other individuals that I have encoutered. Indeed, this statement has proven too true countless times throughout the history of mankind, becoming a perennial favorite theme for artistic works ranging from novels to plays.

Le chef-d'œuvre de John Adams fait son entrée à Bastille par la grande porte, avec une mise en scène inspirée de Valentina Carrasco, une distribution exemplaire et une excellente direction musicale.

La metteuse en scène Mariame Clément s'attaque à l'opéra de Massenet avec plus ou moins de bonheur, dans une production qui ne manque pas de ressources musicales.

Une bien belle soirée ravélienne, qui aura mis en valeur un Orchestre de la Suisse Romande décidémment en grande forme sous la direction raffinée de Charles Dutoit, expert de la musique française.