Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Mary Bevan

Illusion – theatrical illusion – is the theme of Pierre Audi's staging of Alcina, Handel’s beloved opera which finally makes its debut in Rome. 

ENO's revival features a striking performance from Mary Bevan as bride-to-be Susanna, but elements of the staging continue to raise eyebrows. 

Lisette Oropesa leads strong vocal performances in Handel's madcap tale of love and sorcery. Richard Jones' production is visually all over the place, but in a good way.

The five female voices in the opera's main roles complement each other wonderfully in this more-than-concert performance in New York. 

A moving St John Passion from the OAE, with direction shared between Margaret Faultless and tenor Mark Padmore.

A delightful performance of Haydn's oratorio, streamed from the Barbican all the way to our reviewer in Australia. 

Featuring the clear-voiced and assured soprano Mary Bevan, Bliss’ Rout seemed less dated than others in this performance.

Handel's oratorio Susanna is often considered to be less than consistently dramatic and this performance in the Halle Handel Festival did little to dispel that view.

Laurence Cummings conducting the FestspielOrchester Göttingen and the NDR Chor, with an exemplary suite of vocal soloists, but a slightly problematic venue, sweep all before them in the Handel Festival of 2020.

Even Baroque specialist John Butt could not persuade the BBC Symphony Chorus to sing in tune

It was unfair to pair the exquisite madrigals and songs of Barbara Strozzi with a weighty piece by Monteverdi.

Mary Bevan’s bewitching soprano is the star of a glorious programme of music by Ravel and his contemporaries.

Sir John Eliot Gardiner and his Baroque specialists continue their crusade to bring Bach's church cantatas to the modern world.

Mark-Anthony Turnage's take on Neil Gaiman's classic young adult novella is well sung and well staged, without quite reaching peak intensity.

Weill's neglected "American Opera" opens in Madrid with a refurbished production by John Fulljames and a strong cast led by Patricia Racette.

Superlative musicianship and extravagant detailing from the force-of-nature that is Richard Egarr and the Academy of Ancient Music 

Suffering, forgiveness, and natural brass in a brand new dramatic oratorio

A probing, exultant and musically tireless performance from The English COncert.

Music written by Bach for the Collegium Musicum, and also for the first Sunday after Easter, was played with skill and flourish by this exceptional orchestra;  sadly, the singing was not consistently good enough to match. 

The stunning Glyndebourne production of Saul by Barrie Kosky also makes a big impact in the Adelaide Festival.

Richard Jones' new production is original and thought-provoking, while a commendable cast soars under the capable baton of Mark Wigglesworth.

The away leg of Rossini's “Italian girl - Turkish guy” fixture makes for a thoroughly enjoyable evening at Garsington, without ever quite bursting into flame.

Bach: Sacred and Secular became the focus for a creative partnership between Bach scholar John Butt and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

A very naughty translation and some fine singing make for a delightfully comic evening of Cesti's recently rediscovered Orontea at Wigmore Hall. 

Miller eschews the oriental side of the tale, seeing The Mikado as a play on daft British eccentricity. 

Former RSC Artistic Director Michael Boyd imparts a distinctly Shakespearean flavour to Monteverdi's L'Orfeo in this first collaboration between the Royal Opera and the Roundhouse.

John Woolrich is a publically undervalued contributor to British musical life. This evening’s concert attempted to celebrate as many of the man’s musical guises as possible.

Full of physical comedy, joyous and enthusiastic, Fiona Shaw's vision of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro makes the most of its taut and energetic plotlines, intense charactisation and beautifully balanced music. 

Players from the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightment play Schubert's Octet in F major alongside Lieder from 1824 sung by Roderick Williams, Mary Bevan, Robert Murray and Rozanna Madylus, accompanied by Sholto Kynoch.

Inspired by the sight of sixteen swans in flight, the great swinging horn call in the final movement of Sibelius Fifth Symphony is one of the most life-affirming moments in the composer’s output. If this ‘Swan Hymn’ glowed rather than blazed brightly last night, it was the journey there which impressed in the hands of Thomas Søndergård, Principal Conductor of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

Così fan tutte in a 1950s carnival setting. Visually spectacular, and with plenty of laughs. Not everything works, but still worth seeing, especially for Roderick Williams' spivvy Don Alfonso.

In the revival of David Alden's Peter Grimes at English National Opera, the singing is excellent, the orchestral performance is out of the top drawer and the staging hardly puts a foot wrong.

Before the beginning of this new version of Mozart’s The Magic Flute from Simon McBurney, Complicite and English National Opera, one may wonder, looking at the stage, why it was recently hailed as the company’s most technically advanced creation to date: an austere, no-frills set consisting of a single suspended rectangular slab and a raised orchestra pit both reflect this production’s refreshing

If Count Almaviva (to say nothing of Don Giovanni) were alive today, he might perhaps enlist Richard Dawkins to defend his behaviour. We know from evolutionary biology that the male stands the best chance of passing on his genes if he has many partners, the female if she can keep the male around to help raise the children he’s had with her.

Ludus Baroque was founded in 1997 by Richard Neville-Towle, the Director of Music at Cannongate Kirk on the Royal Mile, and has built up a reputation for excellence as the group comprises hand-picked specialist Baroque players and singers from around the UK.

This week the Linbury Studio Theatre attracted an audience of the more minute variety with its dazzling production of The Firework-Maker’s Daughter. Based on Philip Pullman’s novel, the two-act opera transported its listeners into the realms of the Far East with papery costumes, Indonesian shadow puppetry and hand-crafted pyrotechnics.

Jonathan Miller and ENO’s iconic interpretation of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado has returned to the London Coliseum this Christmas, to the delight of G&S fans across the capital, including myself.

When choosing a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta to be performed at the Proms in a year firmly branded as "London 2012", The Yeomen of the Guard had obvious appeal, being set in one of the capital's most famous landmarks, and giving the opportunity, even in semi-staged form, to deck the hall with Beefeater uniforms.

As dappled evening sunshine filled the historic Canongate Kirk, near the foot of the Royal Mile, a large audience filled the powder blue-coloured pews under the Colours of the King’s Own Scottish Borderers and the Royal Scots for an evening of music by Handel.

A trip to the opera at Garsington in its new, idyllic setting at Wormsley Estate, Buckinghamshire, is a fine treat even in the rain. And with a Don Giovanni production which, despite plenty of oddities, is light-hearted and often witty, an excellent evening of high-class entertainment is guaranteed.

Ian Page and the Classical Opera Company have made a specialty of performing early Mozart operas and at the weekend, they gave two performances of his two-act serenata, Il re pastore as part of the series “Mozart Unwrapped” at Kings Place.

Those of us who are regulars at the Royal Albert Hall know how difficult it can be for an orchestra and choir to really fill that enormous space with sound.

It's about time someone wrote an opera about the internet. And who better than Nico Muhly - snarky blogger, snappy Tweeter, and according to the Daily Telegraph "the hottest young composer around"? Add seasoned playwright Craig Lucas, top Broadway director Bartlett Sher and some of Britain's finest singers, and you might expect them to cook up a success.

The Royal Academy of Music has a small but beautifully refurbished theatre, the 230 seat Sir Jack Lyons Theatre, where it stages full opera performances. Although many of the seats are taken by Academy staff, performers' friends and families, talent scouts and others with specific reasons for being there, some of the tickets are available to the public.

Die Zürcher Sing-Akademie und das Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich stimmten mit Händels beliebtestem Oratorium auf Weihnachten ein. Dank der Leitung des Barockspezialisten Willem de Vriend war dem Unterfangen Erfolg beschieden.

Die Dirigentin Emmanuelle Haïm und die Regisseurin Jetske Mijnssen ziehen am gleichen Strick und lassen Rameaus Platée sowohl als musikalische als auch theatralische Komödie erscheinen. 

L'Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment et Mark Padmore proposent au TCE une Passion selon saint Jean de Bach solide et ciselée mais par endroit trop contenue. 

L'ouvrage lyrique méconnu de Kurt Weill bénéficie d'une distribution américaine inspirée, d'une mise en scène agréablement surprenante et d'un excellent Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo.