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

Under the baton of Semyon Bychkov, the Czech Philharmonic and a sprawling supporting cast lead listeners up a stairway to heaven. 

Exceptional singing enlivens a flawed production, which takes liberties with the tone and tenor of Beethoven's sole opera.

The composer's magnum opus, unjustly neglected in English-speaking countries, receives magnificent treatment from Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, anchored by David Butt Philip and Christine Goerke.

Nelsons stresses refined dynamics, rhythmic drive, balance and contrast as he closes the Beethoven Festival in style. 

A solo trio of David Butt Philip, Dame Sarah Connolly and Roderick Williams draw on extensive stage experience to inhabit their roles in a naturally assured, vividly communicative fashion.

Jakub Hrůša and his Czech forces give an impressive account of a mass which with its ecclesiastical elements, yet pantheistic spirit and visceral energy points towards a more secular age.

Joining OHP's 2019 production of Wolf-Ferrari's charming domestic comedy, a blazing new production of Pagliacci delivers everything that one could want from Leoncavallo's infamous opera. 

Karina Canellakis conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in a programme of large scale repertoire to close the 2023 Edinburgh International Festival. 

Ann Yee and Natalie Abrahami give Rusalka an ecological reading, but it's the musical side of things that really takes flight in The Royal Opera's new production.

With a powerful but not world-beating team of soloists, Gardner and the LPO tackle Schoenberg's sprawling cantata with aplomb – except for one near-catastrophic misstep.

Brett Dean’s Hamlet at the Met is a worthy addition to the operatic canon, and the production is a treat. 

Kasper Holten's decade-old production begins to show its age, in a routine revival with undistinguished soloists.

Forget Rimsky-Korsakov, forget the Polish act... Stephen Wadsworth's new production for The Met returns to Mussorgsky's original 1869 version of his Russian historical epic. 

Glyndebourne's 2021 season opens with an intense, minimalist staging of Janáček’s tale of adultery, focused on the contrasts between its heroine's dreams and reality.

The Norwegian soprano proved near-ideal, with ethereal high notes and a steeliness well suited to the character.

The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment gets to strut its stuff on the Glyndebourne stage in a concert of Brahms and Beethoven. 

Dame Sarah Connolly and David Butt Philip prove that less really can be more.

Nine symphonies, five orchestras, two days: an immersive weekend as part of the Barbican's Beethoven 250 coverage featuring some of the UK's finest orchestras. 

Brett Dean's operatic reworking of Shakespeare's Hamlet receives its German premiere in a powerful new staging by the work's librettist Matthew Jocelyn.

Wolf-Ferrari's Il segreto di Susanna provides an airy bon-bouche to Tchaikovsky's Iolanta, brilliantly sung by Natalya Romaniw and David Butt Philip and conducted to fairy-tale perfection by Sian Edwards

A title role performance full of depth from Terfel and a barnstorming comic interlude from Tomlinson provide some great moments, but much of this Boris fails to rise above the ordinary.

The Austrian composer’s rarely heard one-acter proves triumphant in an intelligent, moving staging.

Sir Mark Elder conducts a memorable performance of Berlioz' masterpiece in Manchester's Bridgewater Hall.

Carsen's scaled-down Ring makes a timely comeback with a melancholy message of decay.

The music’s explosions of volume have an open-throated magnificence.

An embarrassingly trite libretto proves unsalvageable, even with a committed cast of singers.

Henrik Nánási balances the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House to perfection, setting the stage for a memorable title role performance from Byström and a powerful Jochanaan from Michael Volle.

Cast and choir snaked and kicked their legs through the aisles of the hall – picking up audience members along the way – leading to a riotous on-stage dance.

A restless score, a stylish modern setting and gripping central performances from David Butt Philip (trading Laertes at the festival for the title role here) and Jennifer France (Ophelia) do much to commend this new work

Kirill Karabits and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra brought a wide ranging programme from the south coast for their annual Proms visit.

With Andris Nelsons' withdrawal from Bayreuth last year, the BSO’s summer home, Tanglewood, became the venue for his Wagner with a concert performance of Das Rheingold

Brett Dean treats Shakespeare's behemoth as a timeless story told in language that has become timeless; no effort is spared in elucidating and amplifying that story.

Concluding its "Belief and Beyond Belief" series, the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Yazushi Ono also completes its 2016-2017 concert season. 

The Hallé's Elgar Festival concludes with the work the composer wished to be remembered by. 

The Hallé's oddly-ordered Ring arrives at the beginning with Das Rheingold.

Two parts of Puccini's triptych are directed by Michael Barker-Craven - Il tabarro and Suor Angelica - in brilliantly successful productions at Leeds Grand Theatre.

Complete performances of Semiramide are as rare as hen's teeth. Opera Rara came close in a terrific concert performance in the Hanging Gardens of Kensington.

Bryn Terfel and Sir Antonio Pappano brought their excellent interpretation of the 1869 version of Mussorgsky's seminal opera to the Royal Albert Hall for a one-off revival.

The sheer opulence of Minghella's staging often overwhelms, drenched in colour. Is that enough to really get to the core of the drama though, or is it all surface gloss?

Richard Jones new production of Mussorgsky's episodic epic has plenty of strengths, but is marred by unappealing designs and rushed tempi.

Opera North's captivating production of Janáček’s Jenůfa directed by Tom Cairns at the Grand Theatre Leeds

If Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma, then Boris Godunov is about five Russian dolls' worth.

James Conway’s production of La bohème may be a little restrained on banter, but hits all the emotional high notes, is compellingly played and superbly sung. 

ENO's revival of Jonathan Miller's 2009 production is musically solid, but falls short of the dramatic intensity achieved in previous years.

If you want to have your operatic head seriously messed with, imagine the following: Così fan tutte staged on the Act I/IV set of John Copley’s soon-to-be-mothballed La bohème, which closed with a double performance on Saturday afternoon and evening. Throw in Don Alfonso sporting frock coat, wig and cane, looking for all the world like Baron Scarpia, and the mash-up of references had my head spinning.

As revivals go, Karita Mattila and Jane Archibald make the Royal Opera's Ariadne auf Naxos a must-see.

From Studio to Stage was the name of this year’s summer performance by young artists on the Jette Parker programme at the Royal Opera House. The programme includes not only singers but also conductors/répétiteurs, a pianist, a lighting designer and stage director Pedro Ribeiro, who surely wins the prize for best headshot.

„Hier wird’s Ereignis – das Unbeschreibliche, hier ist‘s getan“ – mit diesen Worten endet Goethes Faust II, Mahlers Symphonie und damit auch die Amtszeit von Christian Thielemann als Chefdirigent der Sächsischen Staatskapelle.

Ein überragender Christian Thielemann sorgt am Pult für einen musikalisch außergewöhnlichen Lohengrin. Auf der Bühne wird eine Paralellwelt gezeichnet, die Traditionalisten nur bedingt gefallen wird.