Wagner's storytelling shines brightly with the aid of a cast well out of the ordinary. Vinke, Stemme, Siegel and Lundgren make part 3 of The Ring an unforgettable evening of opera.
We start with a triumphant Royal Opera debut from Stuart Skelton, we close with Nina Stemme at her finest; a thrilling orchestral performance links the two. A memorable Walküre.
Antonio Pappano and the Royal Opera Orchestra get the Ring cycle off to a blazing start; unusually, it's Lise Davidsen and the female cast who take the vocal honours.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
