Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Ekaterina Gubanova

Michael Spyres shines in his debut as Tristan alongside powerhouse soprano Lise Davidsen as Isolde in Yuval Sharon's new, beguiling production at the Metropolitan Opera.

Damiano Michieletto is entrusted with the first staging of Lohengrin in Rome for 50 years, but his distracting staging is redeemed by the musical side of things. 

Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic open their “Mahler Grooves” festival, featuring Simon Keenlyside and Ekaterina Gubanova in Des Knaben Wunderhorn. 

A mad March hare, a murdered child, a hypochondriac prince, and a roomful of dead wives make for a stellar concert by the Houston Symphony Orchestra. 

Dmitri Tcherniakov’s staging of Rusalka in Naples has a starkly modern visual style which occasionally dilutes the story’s emotional impact.

Tobias Kratzer's prelude to this new Ring cycle exceeds all expectations and scores a musical-theatrical success.

Soloists, orchestra and chorus fully contribute to a powerful rendition of Mahler's Second Symphony, but it serves as a reminder of issues that have marked van Zweden's Mahler during his New York tenure. 

When in doubt, stage the action in a theatre. Australian director Justin Way gets in the way of Bellini's Norma at the Teatro di San Carlo. 

Andreas Schager is the main reason to catch the latest revival of Otto Schenk's ultra-traditional Tannhäuser.

Albery's production allows the opera to speak for itself, although sluggish pacing in the pit detract from the musical merits of this revival. 

Sir David McVicar's new production opens the Met season with house's first ever staging of Cherubini's Medea.

The elegance of the First Symphony served as a perfect curtain raiser for the mammoth, exultant Ninth.

Dressed in white, with an origami swan in his hand, Robert Alagna's Lohengrin is less a Grail knight than an absent-minded daydreamer.

London Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir paint a terrifying picture of hell and damnation at the Royal Festival Hall.

The Staatsoper Berlin celebrate the arrival of Michael Volle, a splendid Wotan, aided by a strong ensemble of singers and Daniel Barenboim's leadership.

Daniel Barenboim led a performance of deliberate tempo with a great ensemble of singers.  Guy Cassiers‘ production, while visually stunning at times, does little to enhance the performance.

A surprise "artist" gatecrashes the Festival's closing concert

Orchestra and chorus reach great Wagnerian heights in this new production by Christof Loy, a study of an artist in revolt against hypocritical sexual mores.

Wagner is a rare bird in Perth; the second *Tristan und Isolde* in 12 years worth the wait, no less for being a concert performance, and for bringing Skelton's masterful interpretation to an Australian audience

A passionless staging of Wagner's masterpiece throws cold water on Barenboim's fiery conducting at the Staatsoper.

The Lyric Opera’s new production of Carmen is lusciously embodied, with expressionistic splashes of colour against a quasi-modern backdrop. 

The return of the Met's Aida was a joyous celebration of the art form with excellent singers and orchestra doing what they do best against the backdrop of a traditional but effective staging.

Director Mariusz Treliński’s previous work at the Met, in conjunction with Boris Kudlicka’s sets and Bartek Macias’ videos, was a double bill of Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta and Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle.

Staatsoper Berlin's Götterdämmerung featured memorable vocal performances from Iréne Theorin and Andreas Schager, with Daniel Barenboim and his orchestra providing the rest of the drama.

The second evening of Staatsoper Berlin's Ring featured an exceptionally strong musical performance, both from the orchestra and the singers. 

The revival of Das Rheingold at Staatsoper Berlin was still marred by distracting use of dancers on stage, but musically it was a great success. 

After being absent since December, music director Riccardo Muti returned to Chicago Symphony in a passionate account of the epic Roméo et Juliette by Berlioz.

A daring, fascinating pairing of two modern operas by Krzysztof Warlikowski in Paris. 

A good staging and good acting aren't enough to make up for musical shortcomings of the Bayerische Staatsoper's Norma. 

Tristan und Isolde is notoriously difficult to bring off in the theatre, but under Daniel Barenboim's direction, Waltraud Meier, Peter Seiffert and an outstanding cast give a profoundly moving performance of Harry Kupfer's production at the Berlin Staatsoper.

Vittorio Grigolo and Ekaterina Gubanova star in Massenet's Werther in concert form with the Deutsche Oper Berlin. 

Riccardo Muti conducts Verdi's Requiem in Madrid and forever changes the lives of the audience that witnessed in astonishment.

Ana María Martínez takes on the title role as Dvořák’s nymph Rusalka in a new Lyric Opera production by David McVicar.

Video artist Bill Viola fills Tristan und Isolde with mesmerising images. Peter Sellars stages and Marc Piollet conducts a cast where King Marke reigns, at the Teatro Real in Madrid.

Dipping my toes into the murky waters of the Wagner-fest at the Proms this year for the first time, I found myself confronted with the monumental second installment of the Ring cycle, Die Walküre.

A Beethoven cycle last year, The Ring this year: what will Daniel Barenboim bring to the 2014 Proms? Perhaps, given the recent success of extracts both at the Proms and at Lincoln Center Festival, the smart money is on Karlheinz Stockhausen’s 29-hour, seven-opera cycle Licht. Then again, perhaps not.

I don’t think Valery Gergiev has ever been out to claim that Brahms and Szymanowski were particularly similar composers. I certainly hope he hasn’t, at any rate, on the basis of his final LSO programme pairing the two of them.

Read our review of David McVicar's production of Donizetti­'s Anna Bolena in its 2011 broadcast from the Met Opera in New York.

The message in Paul Curran's new production of Rimsky-Korsakov's The Tsar's Bride is a simple one: violent and powerful men are the same in every era. And, of course, no good can result from the violence. If the opera's title made you expect a happy and light-hearted occasion, think again: it's definitely not that sort of Royal Wedding.

Tobias Kratzer spinnt seine Lesart des Ring-Zyklus weiter; sowohl mit spektakulären Bildern, aber auch einer psychologisch menschlichen Deutung.

Viel dekorativer Tand, wenig Aktion und Bewegung: zu Wagners Tristan und Isolde spielt in Bayreuth derzeit die Musik die Hauptrolle.

Tobias Kratzers Rheingold bildet den krönenden Abschluss der Münchener Opernfestspiele – eine Inszenierung, die jetzt schon als Meilenstein gelten kann.

Auch im dritten Jahr der Bayreuther Parsifal-Produktion kreist die Diskussion um die zum Einsatz kommende «Augmented Reality». Sie verstellt aber den Blick auf die musikalischen Qualitäten der aktuellen Aufführungen.

Lydia Steier zeigt einen Titelhelden, der sich nicht entscheiden kann, in welcher Welt er leben möchte. Und Philippe Jordan kostet die reiche Klangpalette der späten Wiener Fassung aus.

Deuxième reprise de cette production signée Krzysztof Warlikowski, qui se distingue par une distribution d’une belle homogénéité et la direction raffinée de Simone Young.

La production est de retour à Bayreuth, avec les avantages et les inconvénients de son dispositif de réalité augmentée, et surtout une interprétation musicale de très haut vol.

Riccardo Chailly und das Concertgebouw Orchester feiern Schönbergs 150. Geburtstag mit einer imposanten Aufführung der Gurre-Lieder.

Tobias Kratzers Regieansatz voller Anspielungen sowie Klaus Florian Vogts wandlungsfähige tenorale Leuchtkraft bleiben 2023 wiederum Bayreuther Publikumsmagnete.