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Alpine mountains and streams set the scene for an illuminating production of Wagner's 'play to consecrate a stage'. 

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

Bayrischer Staatsoper’s revival of Warlikowski’s static production of Tristan und Isolde featured a sensational role debut of Elena Pankratova as Isolde.

One of the leading events of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden's Festtage, Jérémie Rhorer's interpretation of the Missa solemnis is a monument to the composer... but its marble is not always too cleanly carved.

Romeo Castellucci's new production of Daphne for the Staatsoper reflects on our relationship with nature, subverting the perspective of Richard Strauss' opera.

Ulf Schirmer bows out as General Music Director as the last of Wagner's 13 operas completes a successful Festival Wagner 22 in Leipzig.

Philipp Stölzl depicts Turandot as a tragedy of a lonely princess who pays dearly for her cruelty in his fascinating new production at the Staatsoper Berlin.

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. 

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

Barenboim conducts Otto Nicolai's Falstaff opera with a warmth and affection that is sorely lacking on stage. 

Instead of telling a story of spiritual enlightenment and ultimate redemption through faith, Pierre Audi's reading is bereft of mystery and magic.

The Met’s production of Wagner’s Parsifal is a harrowing affair, entrancing in its refusal to charm. 

The musical experience was dominated by the imagery making spectators feel, at least at times, overwhelmed.

Jürgen Flimm's take on Schumann's Faust Scenes offers no solutions to self-imposed problems at the Staatsoper unter den Linden's glitzy reopening.

The Dvořákʼs Prague Festival opens with an upbeat treatment of one of the composer's masterworks.

Magisterial playing and conducting underpin an outstanding, engrossing evening of Wagner at the Schiller Theater.

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.

A dream cast come true in Don Carlo at San Francisco Opera. Emilio Sagi's direction is the only weak link in this production.

Daniele’s Abbado’s black-box production of Don Carlo augurs a crash landing with no survivors.

Bavarian State Opera celebrate the opening of the 2015/16 season with Arrigo Boito's opera Mefistofele

Better conducting and supertitles would also help breathe life into this drab revival of Bayerische Staatsoper's Don Carlo.

The bright colours and childishness of Konwitschny’s production for the Bayerische Staatsoper shock but succeed. The cast and orchestra shine, especially in the final act.

This revival of Peter Mussbach's production of Macbeth is devoid of props and places the focus squarely on singers and orchestra. This challenge was splendidly met by Plácido Domingo, making a role debut as Macbeth, and Liudmyla Monastyrska.

Excellent singing and a stunning debut win out over relentlessly clever visual effects.

A triumphant opening night was crowned by superb performances from Željko Lučić and Anna Netrebko as Macbeth and his Lady. But why the negative audience reaction to Adrian Noble's intelligent production? 

From introspective Mahler to flowing Schumann, Claudio Abbado is remembered at a concert with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra in Dresden's Frauenkirche.

Before the music in the Metropolitan Opera’s new Parsifal starts, a black but reflective curtain drapes the front of the stage. It is dim enough not quite to show the audience, but it picks out the chandeliers.

The first opera of the season at La Scala is an event of huge cultural significance in Italy, so it raised some hackles when, for Giuseppe Verdi’s centenary year, the management passed over Verdi in favour of Wagner’s Lohengrin. But even Italians disappointed by the insult to their culture found it impossible to quarrel with the quality of the singing talent on show.

Faith and glamour have bookended this year’s Salzburg Festival, a move met with incredulity in certain quarters and yet one not entirely alien to Austrian customs, if one looks to the 20 or so most glittering events of the Viennese ball season, which is promptly curtailed by Ash Wednesday (still observed by much of the population here with high Catholic asceticism).

Few conductors could hold an audience's applause whilst shaking hands with every member of the orchestra and then speaking extensively about politics. Daniel Barenboim, though, on completion of a week-long Beethoven cycle, did so and then dashed to the Olympic opening ceremony to bear the Olympic flag alongside Ban Ki-Moon, among others.

Read our review of Des McAnuff's production of Faust by Gounod, in its 2011 broadcast from the Met Opera in New York.

In this Royal Opera production of Gounod's Faust, there's no question about who's in charge. Not only does the devil get all the best lines, but he bosses the show from beginning to end. Clad in feathered hat, long curly wig and reminiscent of the Laughing Cavalier, René Pape plays Mephistopheles quite superbly, alternating between mercurial bouffe comic lines and extreme sardonic nastiness.

  Read our review of Stephen Wadsworth's production of Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov in its 2010 broadcast from the Met Opera in New York.  

Read our review of Julie Traymor's production of Mozart­'s Magic Flute in its 2006 broadcast from the Met Opera in New York.

Le chef finlandais s'est montré plus tempéré, moins tapageur qu'à son habitude dans bien des œuvres monumentales, face à un Orchestre de Paris sur la retenue.

Calixto Bieito will in seiner Neuadaption von Verdis wohl bekanntester Oper viel und erreicht damit so ziemlich nichts. Zum Glück gibt es Elīna Garanča. 

Calixto Bieitos Neuinszenierung liefert viel Schatten, aber auch Glanzlichter.

A l'Opéra Bastille, Philippe Jordan fait des adieux d'anthologie, dans une Faust-Symphonie fougueuse et un Parsifal céleste – aux côtés de René Pape, Andreas Schager, Peter Mattei et Ève-Maud Hubeaux.

La primera jornada de la tetralogía El anillo del nibelungo se presenta en el Real bajo la dirección de Heras-Casado y Robert Carsen en una producción que cuenta con un reparto de lujo.

Dans la mise en scène de Warlikowski créée en 2017, Don Carlo est de retour à Bastille, cette fois-ci dans sa version italienne. Une franche réussite malgré l'état grippal de Roberto Alagna.    

Mit Fabio Sartori und Anja Harteros entsteht beim ersten Don Carlo der Saison ein ganz besonderer musikalischer Zauber.

Die Zauberflöte besteht in Berlin alle Prüfungen, René Pape begeistert als Sarastro besonders.

Die technisch-kühle Interpretation von Dvořáks Werk durch Christoph Eschenbach und die Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden konnte weder von den Solisten noch vom großartigen Chor in Karfreitagszauber verwandelt werden.

Ricarda Merbeth gibt eine markerschütternde Elektra in Patrice Chéreaus psychologischer Inszenierung.

Moshe Leiser und Patrice Cauriers Inszenierung ist repertoiretauglicher als die Polizei erlaubt, die in dieser Inszenierung mit Tutu statt mit Tatütata auftritt.

Lise Lindstrom macht bei ihrem Rollendebüt an der Wiener Staatsoper nicht nur wortwörtlich eine gute Figur.

En guise d'ouverture de saison à l'Opéra de Paris, le Tristan de Peter Sellars et Bill Viola laisse les wagnériens sur leur faim, malgré un grand Philippe Jordan.

In dieser Inszenierung funktioniert nicht alles, doch sie bietet reichlich Anregung zur Diskussion und einen Gurnemanz, der wohl jeden zum rechten (Wagner-)Glauben führt.