Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | David Shipley

Sir David Pountney's 1997 staging for Welsh National Opera is given a welcome new lease of life at Grange Park Opera, splendidly cast... with one major exception. 

Sir Mark Elder conducts his final opera performance as Musical Director of The Hallé, a rare chance to hear the original version of Verdi's middle period opera. 

First marketed as Ivan the Terrible by Serge Diaghilev, Rimsky-Korsakov's first opera The Maid of Pskov makes a rare appearance outside of Russia, in leafy Surrey. 

The War of the Romantics – Brahms v Wagner – from the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Nathalie Stutzmann, followed by an energetically powerful Mozart Requiem with the BBC National Chorus of Wales on fine form.

Verdi's most political of operas brilliantly highlights the juxtaposition of personal desires and political imperatives

It was unfair to pair the exquisite madrigals and songs of Barbara Strozzi with a weighty piece by Monteverdi.

More relevant than ever, the patriarchal nightmare of Verdi's Rigoletto is dark and unflinching in Scottish Opera's revival of their 2011 production, with some striking scenes and fine singing.

Neither Simon Rattle nor Magdalena Kožena could resist a tendency to add sentiment.

Lise Davidsen and Sabine Devieilhe produce soprano heaven in their contrasting vocal styles. Katie Mitchell’s staging feels disappointingly familiar.

A series of ill-advised staging choices leads to a disappointingly drab performance of Monteverdi's Homeric epic.

Two years ago, Russian soprano Ekaterina Bakanova was thrust into her Royal Opera debut, stepping in at short notice as Violetta. Her triumph was enough for the powers that be to offer her a run of five performances this month.

Holten's masonic lodge setting of Meistersinger gets a lot right but is occasionally uneven; Terfel and Hughes Jones are constantly good to listen to.

Richard Eyre's uncomplicated production remains as watchable as ever; Joyce El-Khoury makes a promising Covent Garden debut.

I arrived at the Royal Opera House in the usual way, settled into my seat, and – could you believe it – the opera was gone!

A disappointing staging for the Jette Parker Young Artists' annual showcase at the Royal Opera House. 

Ian Page assembled a fine cast, with a particularly good Leporello from David Soar for yet another superb performance of Mozart from Classical Opera.

Liudmyla Monstyrska and John Relyea turn in strong performances and Plácido Domingo confirms his hallowed status, but Daniele Abbado's direction remains unappealing in this first revival.

A blistering performance of Suor Angelica is the highlight of this strongly performed revival of Richard Jones' 2011 production.

A clumsily directed, poorly sung Tosca at the ROH made for a dispiriting evening. 

Would a younger soprano taking the role of Tatyana blur Kasper Holten's "dancing doubles" vision of Eugene Onegin at the Royal Opera House?

The Royal Opera House get us in the mood for Halloween with a deliciously creepy, lean production of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies' The Lighthouse. 

A joyously fresh and zesty Orfeo, played on a selection of period instruments and with a magnificent leading tenor, makes for a superb evening of Monteverdi with Sir John Eliot Gardiner. 

The Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists performed Monteverdi's L'Orfeo in Costa Mesa.

In this double bill, we get a violently enthusiastic little farce from Donizetti which, though fiery, is definitely not his best work; but next, we are treated to the revival of a brilliant, beautiful one-act opera by Malcolm Arnold. 

With only twelve singers, including the soloists, the Dunedin Consort gives an insight into what the first Messiah might have sounded like in Dublin's Musick Hall in 1742.

A landmark in Trafalgar Square, St Martin-in-the-Fields was London’s first free-lending library, is home to one of the world’s foremost chamber ensembles (The Academy of St Martin in the Fields), and puts on hundreds of classical music concerts each year.

Reprise mitigée de l'opéra de Richard Strauss au Théâtre des Champs-Elysées : Olga Pudova, Camilla Nylund et Kate Lindsey tiennent le haut du pavé ; Katie Mitchell échoue à divertir.

Le 8 novembre 2015, Sir John Eliot Gardiner interprète l'Orfeo de Monteverdi en version de concert dans la Galerie des Glaces. La qualité sans failles de The English Baroque Soloists, The Monteverdi Choir, et de chaque chanteur soliste a résulté en une interprétation qu'on pourrait qualifier de parfaite...en tout cas inoubliable.