Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Claudia Mahnke

Péter Eötvös conceived his opera Senza Sangue (Without Blood) as a complement to Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle. Dmitri Tcherniakov has now staged and designed Senza Sangue together with Bluebeard's Castle for Staatsoper Hamburg.

Despite a miscast Isolde, Wagner's operatic monument to love makes its mark in the production by the composer's great-grandaughter.

Frankfurt Opera's 2012 production of Götterdämmerung with its emphasis on the contemporary human issues was a successful conclusion of the revived Ring.

Day two of Frankfurt Ring featured impressive stage work and some superior musical performances, but it was not enough to create a perfect evening of opera.

Director Kirill Serebrennikov gives us a frightening new reality of the modern world beset by war and terrorism in his reimagining of Strauss's Salome

At the end, there was a profusion of boos and applause for the creative team: Castorf and co had given us a Ring cycle that was by turns infuriatingly indulgent, interestingly provocative, visually beautiful, puzzling and rewarding.

Frank Castorf's Soviet-era farm-setting does not obtrude on the emotional core of Wagner's Die Walküre, with excellent performances from Johan Botha, Anja Kampe and Claudia Mahnke, with superlative playing from the Festival Orchestra.

The first installment of Frank Castorf's controversial Ring is applauded on its 2015 revival at Bayreuth, but arguably the incessant visual action detracts from the appreciation of the music. 

Where is the line? Where does the stage end and the audience begin? This is what Australian director Barrie Kosky probes in his production pairing Purcell's Dido and Aeneas with Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle.

Attila Jun's outstanding Hagen and Catherine Foster's sublime Brünnhilde light up the last episode of Frank Castorf's puzzling Ring.

Kirill Petrenko starts Die Walküre with a flourish as Frank Castorf’s staging takes us back to the Baku oilfields in late tsarist Russia.

In this second year of Bayreuth's bicentennial Der Ring, Oleg Bryjak shines as an outstanding Alberich. Frank Castorf's production is striking but as yet incomprehensible.

Grandiose Bilder und die exzellente musikalische Umsetzung bescheren dem Publikum einen insgesamt beeindruckenden Opernabend.

Musik und Szene kommen in Christof Loys Deutung von Alban Bergs Wozzeck in Frankfurt zu einer perfekten Übereinstimmung, wodurch die Aufführung große emotionale Ausstrahlung gewinnt.

In Frankfurt war er mit Puccinis Il trittico dank einer musikalisch ausgefeilten und szenisch-psychologisch stimmigen Präsentation garantiert.

Wenig geschätzt, aber doch hörenswert: Die Frankfurter Oper machte sich konzertant mit einer engagierten Aufführung um Verdis Erstling Oberto verdient.