Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Lee Bisset

Dorset Opera Festival's bold decision to programme Massenet's obscure opera about a medieval Castilian hero proves to be a major success.

A sensational Die Walküre from Sir Andrew Davis and the RSNO at the Edinburgh Festival that will be talked about for years.

A passionate revival of Longborough's 2015 production with outstanding performances from the principals.  

Hot on the heels of its Eugene Onegin, full of potential marriages that never reach the altar, Dorset Opera put on an excellent production of an opera with a successful, slick and murderous power couple.

Jenůfa unfurls with chilling intensity at Longborough with the talented Lee Bisset in the title role. 

Crowning this cycle came a truly magnificent performance of Götterdämmerung, centred very much on Richard Farnes and his orchestra.

In Anna Russell's wittily deadpan analysis of Wagner's Ring cycle, she describes Wotan as “the head god” – pausing for dramatic effect before adding “and he's a crashing bore too.”

Mahler's epic setting of the final scene from Goethe's Faust is so demanding of musical resources that any performance is a special occasion: what better work to conclude the Orchestra Of Opera North's triumphant 2015-2016 season? 

Annilese Miskimmon sets Janáček's powerful tale in rural Ireland, bringing this blistering drama of a close-knit rural community closer to home.

A brilliantly successful performance of Götterdämmerung by Opera North to bring its four-year Ring to a fiery close.