Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Robert Pomakov

Excellent performances cannot turn a conventional production of Massenet’s Werther into a dramatic experience for the 21st century. 

Good Butterflys are not that difficult to come by but great ones are very very rare. Ailyn Pérez fits the bill in this revival of Anthony Minghella’s classic staging. 

Amy Lane’s production of Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette at the COC is eye-catching and enjoyable but doesn’t offer the same level of insight as her Faust last season. 

Claus Guth's new production at the Metropolitan Opera, originally seen at the Bolshoi in 2021, moves the action from biblical Judea to the era of the opera's composition. 

Ambur Braid excels in the title role in the Canadian Opera Company’s starrily cast revival of Atom Egoyan's production.

The COC revival of its 2016 production of Le nozze di Figaro is still rooted in Claus Guth’s gloomy Scandinavia but it’s lightened up to become much sexier and funnier.

Gianandrea Noseda takes his post as general music director at the Opernhaus Zurich leading a great cast in Adele Thomas' successful new production. 

Chrisoph Loy's new Oslo production of Eugene Onegin only somewhat succeeds in its desire to create a meditation on loneliness, but superb musical performances still make it an utterly compelling piece of music theatre.

Christopher Alden’s production of Verdi’s Rigoletto returned to Toronto tighter, more focussed and with fewer dramatic incongruities. Add to this that every aspect of the music making was top notch and it made for a fine evening at the theatre.

Andrea Chénier returns to San Francisco Opera after a long absence, in Sir David McVicar's realistic production. 

There was a nod to John Adams in the score, but also a kind of edgy Americana, complete with powerful writing for male chorus, and an attempt to communicate the flavor of rural North Carolina, not far from where Higdon grew up.

Quinn Kelsey's Rigoletto is commanding, emotional and complex. His bass-baritone has all the qualities you could ask for – darkness and light.

Die 1966 entstandene avantgardistische Oper erlebt in Zürich erst ihre vierte Aufführung. Der Dirigent Gabriel Feltz, der Regisseur Sebastian Baumgarten und ein spielfreudiges Sängerensemble bereiten dem monströsen Werk einen Triumph.

 À Bastille, nouvelle reprise de Madame Butterfly dans la mise en scène historique de Robert Wilson. On adore ou on abhorre ; en tout cas, le plateau et l'orchestre font l'unanimité.

Lydia Steier liefert mit einem doppelten Opernabend ein überzeugendes Hausdebüt an der Oper Frankfurt.

Mise en abyme du drame qui conduira Rigoletto à vivre errant comme un défunt, cette production mise en scène par Claus Guth et portée par une distribution vocale très juste s'avère tout aussi saissisante qu'étonnantament lumineuse dans ce qu'elle révèle pourtant de plus sombre des affects humains.