Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Sian Sharp

Nicole Car makes her role debut as Dvořák's Rusalka in a production by Sarah Giles that proves a winner. 

Yaron Lifschitz mesmerises from the opening tableaux’s row of candles in his Purcell staging for Opera Australia, featuring Circa, a Brisbane-based circus company. 

A fine ensemble cast brings Puccini's triptych of one-acters to the Sydney Opera House stage, with stand-out performances from Lauren Fagan, Viktor Antipenko, Simon Meadows and Angela Hogan.

Damiano Michieletto's imaginative take on Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann is lavish fun, with star turns from Jessica Pratt, Iván Ayón Rivas and Marko Mimica.

Could this be the last triumphant outing for the late, great Elijah Moshinksy's moving production of Rigoletto?

Paradise is lost and greed is good in this stunning retelling of Puccini's ageless opera.

Sydney may possess the most iconic opera house in the world, but Opera Australia ventured outdoors once more for a successful rock 'n' roll-themed Carmen on Cockatoo Island, with a stage positioned at water's edge.

A mid-performance jump-in by tenor Thomas Strong saves the show on the opening night of this revival of Graeme Murphy's production.

Splendid performances by Yonghoon Lee and Karah Son breathe life into Harry Kupfer’s 20-year-old production.

Three outstanding debuts and a warm and funny ensemble shine in David McVicar's naturalistic Marriage of Figaro. 

The revival of David McVicar's production of Gounod's Faust provides spectacle and entertainment in spades, with strong performances from Ivan Magrì (Faust) and Teddy Tahu Rhodes (Méphistophélès).

Rossini's opera is all about art and art lovers in this production by Damiano Michieletto.

A successful concert performance of Umberto Giordano's verismo hit in Sydney, with a trio of international stars. 

Graeme Murphy's new Madama Butterfly opens with arrestingly kinky imagery and heavily exploits digital projections thereafter, but the joy of the production is in the uniform excellence of the performers, headed by the outstanding Karah Son in the title role.

A much-loved 1991 production evoking Fellini’s post-war glamour and grime is revived with three talented young principals, including Mongolian baritone Amartuvshin Enkhbat in the title role.

Gale Edwards' Opera Australia staging of Richard Strauss' bloody opera is revived with Lise Lindstrom in the title role. 

Kosky’s The Nose hits Sydney, sweeping the audience along with hallucinogenic energy. Led by the outstanding Martin Winkler and John Tomlinson, singers and musicians deliver a wild evening's entertainment.

An outstanding cast headed by Karah Son in the title role provides a fitting send off for Opera Australia’s much-loved production of Madama Butterfly in Sydney

Outstanding performances from Nicole Car and Etienne Dupuis turn Opera Australia's unstaged production of Thaïs into a triumph at Sydney Town Hall.

One of the world’s great Carmens and John Bell’s smart direction is a winning combination for this Opera Australia production.

Damiano Michieletto's inspired intertwining of the standard double-bill of Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci makes for vivid storytelling, the whole supported by an excellent cast solidly directed by Andrea Licata.

The final instalment of the Melbourne Ring is vividly brought to life by excellent singing, an adaptable set, and committed playing from the pit.

On a night of technical delays and extraordinary singing, Opera Australia's revival of Die Walküre is particularly memorable for Amber Wagner's Sieglinde and Lise Lindstrom's Brünnhilde.

A relative rarity by Verdi is given an outing at the Sydney Opera House, with excellent performances let down by a disappointing staging. 

Julie Taymor's production maintains the magic of The Magic Flute at Sydney Opera House. 

Rigoletto contains some of Verdi’s greatest melodies, and Opera Australia’s new production brings out the mixture of passion and darkness the heart of this story.

Kasper Holten's innovative production of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin comes to Sydney, with Nicole Car outstanding as Tatyana.

‘To lose one singer, Mr Terracini, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose two, one of them in the title role, looks like … a disaster’. Such were the thoughts running through my head when the Artistic Director of Opera Australia made the pre-performance announcement.

Destiny, Fate, Providence: different ways of describing the sense of an external agency shaping our ends. Verdi’s La Forza del Destino, based on a Spanish play by Angel de Saavedra, Duke of Rivas, is a sprawling tale in which the characters’ lives are irrevocably shaped by a fatal accident.

Another Mozart opera and another intriguing modern production from Opera Australia. The whole opera was presented as entertainment for a wedding reception, with a bride and bridegroom sitting at two corners of the stage, their sole purpose for the production to observe the unfolding comedy on stage.

Operettas are not supposed to have plausible plots, yet the seemingly implausible plot of Franz Léhar’s Merry Widow cuts to the quick in the current environment of possible sovereign bankruptcy. A “merry” widow would be rather callous in any case. The saccharine-soaked melodies, however, are enough to keep me still. Long an admirer of the Gold and Silver waltz, I am biased.