Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Sir Antonio Pappano

Sir Antonio Pappano and his Santa Cecilia Orchestra display their collective strengths in first symphonies by Bernstein and Mahler.

Britten's War Requiem at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden with Antonio Pappano conducting

The Royal Opera Orchestra produce a revelatory reading of Shostakovich’s eclectic score; a fine performance from Eva-Maria Westbroek and excellent acting from the whole cast light up the drama and farce.

The Royal Opera's revival of Phyllida Lloyd's production is marked by two outstanding Verdian singers and a superb rendering of the score from Pappano and the ROH Orchestra.

With Damrau, one hears every word and her account of Strauss' Four Last Songs was memorable. 

The Faust Symphony formed the bloated climax of a demonic date with the Grim Reaper, who loomed large over Sir Antonio Pappano's “Total Liszt” programme with the LSO.

Lengthy but full of melodic invention, Semiramide finally made her triumphant return to the Royal Opera in David Alden's fine new production.

The Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia's second performance of the weekend at Carnegie Hall featured compelling Salvatore Sciarrino and a heavy-footed Mahler 6.

After a nine-year absence, Martha Argerich returned to Carnegie Hall with stunning Prokofiev with the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.

After his affectionate treatment of La fanciulla del West for ENO and his devastating Suor Angelica for the Royal Opera, Richard Jones’ new La bohème is disappointingly bland.

After all the speculation, Jonas Kaufmann made his role debut as Otello at The Royal Opera – an impressive, if not unqualified, success. 

All roads lead to Rome. Last night however, the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia brought the Eternal City vividly to London.

Ermonela Jaho sure likes to put herself (and us) through the emotional wringer on Covent Garden's stage. This time, London finally got to see her as another tragic Puccini heroine: Madama Butterfly.

Holten's masonic lodge setting of Meistersinger gets a lot right but is occasionally uneven; Terfel and Hughes Jones are constantly good to listen to.

A stunning Sieglinde from Mattila eclipses Kaufmann's restrained Siegmund; Pappano conjures exceptional detail and drive from the LSO.

In a cleverly-designed programme, Sir Antonio Pappano and the London Symphony Orchestra brought meticulous attention to detail and plenty of drama in three superb performances.

Gerald Finley displayed a voice still in its prime in a rich and diverse recital at the Barbican, elegantly supported by Antonio Pappano on the piano.

A lively William Tell Overture from Pappano and lyrical Bruch from LSO leader, Roman Simović, preceded a majestic performance of Strauss' Alpine Symphony. 

Kent's staging brings out the sleaze in Puccini's first big hit; Sondra Radvanovsky thrills in the title role; the musical performance improves through the evening.

Shakespeare songs turned out to be more of a Shakespeare feast starring Antonio Pappano, Ian Bostridge and the exceptional Eve Best.

Released from the incarceration of directorial prison walls, Fidelio can still make a most powerful impact on the concert platform.

Àlex Ollé and his Fura dels Baus team stage a spectacular looking Norma, the first new production of Bellini's opera at Covent Garden for nearly 30 years. 

Bryn Terfel and Sir Antonio Pappano brought their excellent interpretation of the 1869 version of Mussorgsky's seminal opera to the Royal Albert Hall for a one-off revival.

Vittorio Grigolo and Joyce DiDonato live up to their starry reputations in the Royal Opera's latest revival of Massenet's tale of unrequited love and suicide.

Britannia rules the waves on the LSO’s tour of Eastern Europe. 

Pappano and the LSO prove many good qualities in Mahler 6 but fail to elevate it from the competent to the sublime.

Mezzo-soprano Marie-Nicole Lemieux made her Cleveland Orchestra debut in a passionate performance of Chausson’s Poème de l’amour et de la mer.

Richard Jones new production of Mussorgsky's episodic epic has plenty of strengths, but is marred by unappealing designs and rushed tempi.

On day release from the Covent Garden pit for their annual evening in the limelight, the ROH Orchestra took a quick spin through works by Russia's Mighty Handful. 

Pappano and the LSO provide magnificent entertainment with Respighi's Roman trilogy; Lise de la Salle gives pin-sharp precision in Rachmaninov's take on Paganini.

A gripping double bill of  “Cav &Pag” from Italian director Damiano Michieletto at Covent Garden includes a few surprise guest appearances. 

On a rare visit to Milan, a programme of Gaspare Spontini and Beethoven exhibited a sound that was sometimes rough around the edges but brimming with creative energy. 

Sadly, Damiano Michieletto and Antonio Pappano's production is more likely to be remembered for its failings – the awful rape scene, its dullness, plus a list of annoying details too long to mention – than for its musical excellence. It’s worth seeing to get a feel of both.

Released from the Covent Garden pit, the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House enjoyed its moment on the stage, breathing in the sea breezes of Ravel and Chausson, strutting its stuff in Bernstein and basking in shimmering Scriabin.

Kasper Holten’s production does an impressive job of exploring the concepts of Szymanowski's Król Roger – perhaps more psychologically than philosophically. It’s a production well worth exploring.

First class performances from Stephen Gould and Nina Stemme are backed by a magnificent orchestral performance in the Royal Opera's revival of Christof Loy's spartan production.

This was a clever and enjoyable concert built around anniversaries – Panufnik at 100 and Richard Strauss at the grand old age of 150. Despite the two composers being miles apart in approach and style the structures of their two pieces, a single movement building to central climax, were revealed as being similar.

Though Janine Jansen's Bartok impresses, Pappano and the LSO disappoint in two of Ravel and Tchaikovsky's best-loved works

Royal Opera’s first rival of Anna Nicole opens to an enthusiastic student audience. Eva-Maria Westbroek dazzles, but second time round the work seems even more burned by its clumsy libretto.

As revivals go, Karita Mattila and Jane Archibald make the Royal Opera's Ariadne auf Naxos a must-see.

Hans von Bülow taunted that Verdi’s Requiem was just another of his operas “in ecclesiastical garb’”. It’s difficult to disagree when dispatched with as much operatic fervour as Antonio Pappano mustered here. 

Tony Pappano’s recipe for a concert programme: take a 20th century Italian one act opera, follow it with a romantic symphony chopped in half, then throw in a related German aria; play without a break. It may sound like a train wreck in the making, but the result was a triumph.

Andrzej Panufnik was paired with Dvořák for this London Symphony Orchestra concert at the Barbican, conducted by Michael Francis and featuring Anne-Sofie Mutter.

The London Symphony Orchestra premières Peter Maxwell Davies' tenth symphony, and Maxim Vengerov plays Britten's Violin Concerto at the Barbican.

There was a collaborative spirit underlying this performance with the London Symphony Orchestra and Antonio Pappano, joined for a brilliant Brahms concerto by Janine Jansen. Walton's First Symphony and a Peter Maxwell Davies fanfare also marvelled.

Celebrating the 100th anniversary of Benjamin Britten’s birth, Antonio Pappano led the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia Orchestra and Choir, together with first-class soloists, in an intense performance of the War Requiem.

No surprise to find a Verdi programme at the Proms in his bicentenary year, but what was unusual was the focus on sacred music, given his antipathy towards the church as demonstrated in his more prolific output, his operas.

Sir Antonio Pappano conducted a moving and original Rachmaninov Second Symphony as the highlight of the first of two Proms concerts with his Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia at the Proms.

Last night’s Covent Garden revival of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra was a study in time slips. On stage, there is the 25 year slip between the end of the prologue, when Simon is named Doge of Genoa, and the dramatic events of Act I. There is the 24 year gap between the disastrous première of the original opera and the triumph of the heavily revised 1881 version.

Little-known fact no. 1: Antonio Pappano made his conducting debut at the Norwegian National Opera, conducting La Bohème in 1987.Little-known fact no. 2: Antonio Pappano was music director of the Norwegian National Opera in the early 90s.These are probably big reasons as to why he chose to come to this part of the world to celebrate his 25th anniversary as a conductor.