Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Bonaventura Bottone

Opera North's concert version of Puccini's Turandot in Leeds Town Hall, conducted by Sir Richard Armstrong, is magnificent

Opera North's new production of The Snow Maiden is the first professional staging in the UK for over 60 years, although the magic is intermittent

Amateur gangsters, but a nicely sung, if rather staid Lucia di Lammermoor at Buxton, worth seeing for its excellent mad scene.

The charm-ometer was cranked firmly to ‘high’ yesterday evening for the opening opera of this year’s Buxton Festival with a performance of The Jacobin, an opera close to Dvořák’s heart. 

A superb concert performance of Der Rosenkavalier with the CBSO and Andris Nelsons receives a rapturous reception. 

Opera North's La Fanciulla del West, directed by Aletta Collins, contains a bold performance from Alwyn Mellor as Minnie, and a powerful Ramerrez in Rafael Rojas.

There's no such thing as a perfect comic opera, and I know it's wrong to describe any work of art as perfect. But seeing Mozart and da Ponte's Le Nozze di Figaro last night, I found this a difficult principle to accept: this opera is about as close as you can get.Many operas have a slew of memorable tunes; many have opportunities for singers to show off their qualities.

Giacomo Puccini comprehensively eclipsed the other Italian composers of his era. Three of them remain in the repertoire as one hit wonders: Mascagni, Leoncavallo and Francesco Cilea, whose four act Adriana Lecouvreur opened at Covent Garden last night.