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The festival’s closing concert brings drama from the RSNO and conductor Thomas Søndergård, but Christopher Maltman's Elijah brings the presence of greatness. 

A fitting farewell for Leif Ove Andsnes' Rosendal Chamber Music Festival: imaginative programming and excellent performances in an inspiring setting. 

Kahchun Wong achieved a gigantic and ambitious landscape of Mahler's Second Symphony at the BBC Proms, even if sometimes lacking in clarity 

Dead air swallows the acoustic, so it’s no wonder this orchestra and choir is busy raising funds to build its own concert hall in Oslo.

Heroes emerge in adversity, and there are sterling turns from Leigh Melrose as a pugilistic Golaud and from the venerable Arkel of Matthew Best.

Andrew Staples creates an austere, monochrome semi-staging that's strangely appropriate to the times; Peter Mattei and John Lundgren lead an excellent cast.

Sam Brown's sparse production leaves nothing to focus on but the individual protagonists on stage. 

Back for its third run at Dutch National Opera, with a satisfying cast, McBurney's staging wins new converts. 

McBurney's brilliant stagecraft brings child-like wonderment to the most hardened adults; his interpretation and Raphaël Pichon's conducting exude Mozartian rightness.

After staged performances in Baden Baden, the Berlin Phil's Parsifal is presented in concert at the Philharmonie, with a couple of key cast changes. 

Juanjo Mena and the Oslo Philharmonic presented a programme of Haydn, Mozart and Brahms, drawing historical parallels, but most importantly showcasing some very fine playing.

You think semi-staged opera is only half the fun? Think again. Glyndebourne's production of Mozart's oriental opera was a revelation.

David McVicar updates Mozart's Singspiel Die Entführung aus dem Serail to the time of composition in a stylish, tender production at Glyndebourne. 

Die Zauberflöte may well tell us something about the Human Condition, but its staging in Zurich serves more to distract from the music and the messages than it does to support them.

Belgian conductor and baroque specialist René Jacobs demonstrates his iconoclastic approach to Mozart with an excitingly theatrical Abduction from the Seraglio at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.

It often takes time to adjust to Nikolaus Harnoncourt's tempi, but this concert performance of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro enabled the audience to discover new colours in a well known score. 

Calixto Bieito's The Tales of Hoffmann at the Norwegian National Opera contains some very effective and at times striking moments, but the production turned out something of a disappointment overall.

The Orchestre de Paris’ 2013/14 season opened with a cymbal crash. Orages (meaning “thunderstorms” in French) was commissioned by the Orchestre de Paris to the Lebanese composer Bechara El-Khoury. In this musical storm, sounds hurt each other, as if superimposed.

In times where musical luxury is sometimes associated with having a pop star perform a short “Happy Birthday” and a handful of songs in a private performance – and for a usually undisclosed (and indecent) fee, having a whole piece of music composed for an occasion, or organising a private performance by a famous orchestra, is almost unimaginable.

The 2012 Festival d’Aix-en-Provence began its four-week feast of opera and music with Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro—and could there be better a way? Nothing can beat the sublime company of Mozart, Da Ponte and Beaumarchais on a summer evening in the open-air Théâtre de l'Archevêché.

Director William Friedkin doesn’t put a dramaturgical foot wrong in his Theater an der Wien production of The Tales of Hoffmann and yet doesn’t challenge, or even engage with, any of the opera’s Romantic positions.

The last production I saw of L’Orfeo explored the idea of music as a manipulative force, suggesting disturbing consequences to the docility it can engender. Director Claus Guth is less concerned with Orfeo the musician, and makes minimal acknowledgement of the work’s pastoral and mythic elements.

La Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de España cierran la temporada con la compleja obra de Schumann dirigida con trazo vigoroso y concertante por David Afkham.

Im unweigerlichen Vergleich zum Haydn2032-Projekt mit Antonini fielen vor allem ein entspannterer, leicht lyrisch-kantablerer, gemäßigterer Ansatz mit Jacobs-typischen Solo-Ripieno-Eingriffen auf.

Beim Festivalabschluss in Herne lag ich geschmackstechnisch besonders mit Ilias Sopran auf einer Wellenlänge. Doch auch bei Elettra hatte eher zurückhaltenderer Häkkinen ein gutes Händchen. Großes Lob an Einspringer Kohlhepp.

Dessners neues Klavierkonzert wurde von der Widmungsträgerin Alice Sara Ott und dem Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich unter der Leitung von Kent Nagano uraufgeführt. Das Werk erfüllte die Vorschusslorbeeren nicht. 

La belle performance instrumentale de l'ensemble ne suffit pas à faire oublier les limites de la mise en espace et de la direction d'acteur, qui font parfois tourner l'œuvre de Monteverdi à la caricature.

Pleine d'effets, de pétarades de trombones, de sifflements acérés de la petite harmonie, de contrebasses sauvages, la Deuxième Symphonie de Mahler proposée à la Philharmonie a cependant manqué de cohésion.

Jacobs' eigene Premiere gestalteter Dialoge, ein sonst fehlender erklärend-verbindender Einstieg, Komik sowie fantastische Musiker ließen diesen weiteren Versuch einer Neuerzählung glücken.

Première de Fidelio triomphale à l'Opéra Comique, où Katherine Broderick (Leonore), arrivée quelques heures avant le lever de rideau pour remplacer la soprano défaillante, sauve non seulement Florestan... mais aussi la soirée !

Edward Gardner und Mari Eriksmoen verzauberten mit spätromantischen Pretiosen beim „Wintermezzo”-Konzert aus Norwegen.

L'Opéra national du Rhin ouvre sa saison avec une pièce imaginée par Karl Ove Knausgård et Calixto Bieito, d'après des œuvres d'Edvard Grieg, mettant en lumière le talent de Mari Eriksmoen.

Dans le grand oratorio de Haydn, Philippe Herreweghe préfère le détachement aux effets spectaculaires. Mari Eriksmoen, Florian Boesch et Patrick Grahl font un formidable trio vocal.

Mit René Jacobs und dem Regieduo Moshe Leiser/Patrice Caurier haben sich nun gleich drei Prinzen gefunden, die  Händels Oper  erfolgreich aus dem Dornröschenschlaf holen.

On ne pourra pas dire que l’équipe des metteurs en scène/chorégraphes Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui et Damien Jalet, associée à Marina Abramovic qui signait et le décor et le concept, aient fait dans le conventionnel, offrant une approche à la fois futuriste et rétro de Pelléas et Mélisande.

Vilde Frang zeigte in der Berliner Phlharmonie ihre ganze leidenschaftliche Ausdruckskraft bei der Interpretation dieses Meisterwerks.

Wahrscheinlich eine der besten Don Giovanni-Inszenierungen aller Zeiten; mit Sicherheit die lustigste.