Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Andrew Goodwin

An impressive new work by Paul Stanhope, Mahāsāgar (the Indian Ocean) is well sung and played by the WASO choir and orchestra with soloists Sara Macliver and Andrew Goodwin, alongside some oceanic favourites

An enjoyable performance of Die Fledermaus from the West Australian Symphony Orchestra and an excellent cast of singers is somewhat mitigated by the venue, as the celebrated Perth Concert Hall undergoes renovation.

An over-enthusiastic audience distracts from an excellent performance of Mozart's Requiem Mass by the West Australian Symphony Orchestra and Choir with a first class quartet of soloists.

Can a perfect performance of the stupendous Gurrelieder be anything other than five stars?

A piecemeal evening of high musical values as the Adelaide Festival opens with short Stravinsky pieces rather than the usual substantial opera. 

Neil Armfield's enchanting production of Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream finally comes to Australia as the centrepiece of the 2021 Adelaide Festival, making a virtue of necessity with its astute casting of Australian talent.

Perhaps Pinchgut Opera's finest production to date, a brave presentation of a classic Baroque opera, little heard in Australia apart from Handel, benefits from the star presence of Vivca Genaux in splendid form.

A remarkable Leïla from Desiree Frahn and insightful direction from Michael Gow combine for a precious production of Bizet’s early masterpiece.

The problematic nature of Britten's Rape of Lucretia is well-known: Sydney Chamber Opera's production attempts to navigate it via gender inversion. 

Mary Finsterer has managed a musical melange that crosses effortlessly and delightfully from the Renaissance to today. If only Tom Wright's book and libretto had been a match, this would have been a work worth taking to the world.

Some nice singing and Baroque playing don't quite make up for an over-ambitious, drab staging of a Handel oratorio in Australia's capital.

...it was the Bach pieces that were the undoubted highlights, particularly the radiant contribution of Sara Macliver.

Another ancient hit revived and delivered with panache by Sydney-based Pinchgut Opera: Gretry's L'Amant jaloux (1778) proved it still could raise laughs, aided by a superb cast. 

Giasone was the most performed opera of the 17th century, but this was no dry, reverent exhumation. This was something much better from Pinchgut Opera: a joyous, animated resurrection.

The Auckland Philharmonia’s choice for their opera in concert this year, The Rake’s Progress is a curious beast indeed. Loosely based on a series of paintings by William Hogarth, the libretto was penned by the great Anglo-American poet W.H.

Certain images of Edward Elgar appear to be too heavily ingrained in our national consciousness ever to be shaken off. He has now been entombed as an establishment figure, a privilege for which he has the Last Night of the Proms to thank.