Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews

Setting aside a disappointing first movement of the Eroica, the Berlin Staatskapelle under Barenboim deliver another polished and persuasive performance in their third Sydney concert.

Costanzo supposed to be the unifying factor of the performance, but he wasn’t always able to surpass the numerous distractions. 

Jonathan Miller's production of La bohème is revived by ENO and features an important house debut. 

All three operas in Puccini's triptych are strongly cast in this revival. 

Excellent musical performances are confounded by clumsy, unimaginative staging in Rameau's explosive first opera.

A clever production enlivens a rare, early opera at the Donizetti Opera Festival. A fantastic cast and a great period orchestra seal a resounding success under the lead of Alessandro De Marchi.

Some 15 minutes long, in a slow-fast-slow form, Le Tombeau de Napoléon wraps a taxing solo part for tenor trombone in a dramatically compelling and sonically thrilling orchestral canvas.

The Berlin Staatskapelle begins their three-concert Sydney series with a thrilling account of Brahms's first two symphonies in Sydney. 

A mixed evening, where Mozart's concerto lacked melancholy and Debussy's Faune inspired neither curiosity nor otherworldliness.

The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra mark the Bernstein centenary with a performance of Chichester Psalms in Chichester Cathedral itself. 

Awkard programming but fine musicianship from the Nash Ensemble and Christine Rice as part of its 'German Romantics' series.

Michael Barker-Caven sets Aida in a 21st-century war zone in the Middle-East, allowing the audience to focus on the human drama.

Nearly a century after his birth, Weinberg's final completed symphony is given its UK premiere by the CBSO and Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla.

Serious farce, warm-hearted sarcasm, operatic Broadway: Barrie Kosky and Komische Oper turn Bernstein's problem child into a show that thrills from start to finish.

The Donizetti Opera Festival presents a rarity with a good cast of bel canto specialists in a somewhat disappointing production.

Even given a routine revival, McVicar's staging has much to recommend it, returning the opera to its literary roots. 

Fine orchestral sound and outstanding solo singing from Sarah Connolly and Steve Davislim aren't enough to compensate for poor balance and timing in Beethoven's great choral work.

This is one of Michieletto's simplest stagings yet, the imagery used to a minimum to allow for focus on the psychological core.

In an all Tchaikovsky programme, Ray Chen delivers a cracking account of the Violin Concerto while Stutzmann brings out all the drama of his Fifth Symphony.

Drive and energy in Andris Nelsons' pairing of the Fourth and Fifth Symphonies highlights their similarities rather than their differences. 

Almost twenty years after her first Vivaldi album, Cecilia Bartoli revisits the composer in her latest recording and touring project. 

The soul of the composer seems very much alive in her touch, particularly in his most retrospective moments.

A pair of A minor sonatas demonstrate the composer's evolution over his lifetime; the Wanderer Fantasy shows the pianist's mastery of phrasing.

Dvořák’s Slavonic Dances were a treat and Simon Trpčeski was characteristically glistening in Shostakovich, but the surprise package turned out to be a rarely heard work by Kabeláč.

Audio and film permeate Marriott's new work for the Royal Ballet, recounting the tale of Ted Feltham, a British Soldier uuring World War 1, and his fiancée, Florence Billington. 

Mark Elder and the LPO's performance of Puccini's Le Willis proved interesting and frustrating in equal measure, rescued by a star performance from Ermonela Jaho.

Conductor Donald Runnicles and pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard deliver a highly expressive performance with pieces by Elgar, Mozart and Strauss. 

Royal Northern Sinfonia welcomed their new chamber pianist in residence, Alisdair Beatson, with some brilliantly imaginative programming.

Minimal yet expressive, archaic mythology collides with the contemporary world in Kat Válastur’s Stellar Fauna at the HAU Hebel am Ufer highlighting the things upon which our survival depends.

A pair of masterpieces in the Australian Chamber Orchestra's latest programme, in typically thought-provoking interpretations. 

Grigorian returns to Stockholm in a wonderful performance of Madama Butterfly, with young, upcoming tenor Migran Agadzhanyan as Pinkerton in a 2014 production by Kirsten Harms.

A wonderfully realized production at San Francisco Opera of Jake Heggie's operatic version of a holiday classic. 

Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel has appeal for all ages, but Robert Carsen’s production is a different take on the beloved fairy tale.

Performing arts duo Ricci/Forte throw what feels like the entire directorial arsenal at this production.

Deeply moving and often terrifyingly dark, Gergiev and the Mariinsky took us on a devastating ride towards the abyss which eventually left me grabbing for a rope.

The second performance of the Met's Pearl Fishers saw one of the leads withdraw mid-performance again. A welcome performance by young baritone Alexander Birch Elliott could not rescue the evening. 

Susan Graham had all the fun every mezzo-soprano witch, who can sing the role and disguise herself – when necessary – to look the part, deserves. 

Vivacious dancing and abundant joie de vivre in La Scala Ballet's Don Quixote

Having offered a strong feminist reading of Wagner's Ring, could Kasper Holten do the same again for Die Meistersinger? Opera Australia's co-production had moments of excellence, but ultimately left the viewer with more questions than answers

Daniel Harding and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra in love with Pettersson and Berlioz, whereas Alina Ibragimova disappoints in Schumann.

The music’s explosions of volume have an open-throated magnificence.

Robin Ticciati and the DSO bring a strong sense of purpose to Rachmaninov's Second Symphony and Christian Tetzlaff explores the extremes of Beethoven's Violin Concerto. 

The Ulster Orchestra present a programme of classical elegance and sunshine; Rustioni is joined by Francesca Dego in an exceptionally sophisticated performance of Mozart’s Violin Concerto no. 3. 

An impressively cast revival for Verdi's one-time neglected masterpiece at Covent Garden.

McFall’s Chamber’s bittersweet programme of Polish music referenced Tango in Warsaw, exploring the avant-garde of Grażyna Bacewicz and early and late Penderecki

Dame Ethel Smyth's Mass in D enjoys a rare outing with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Martyn Brabbins. 

The small, thirty-strong choir was the true star of the evening rendering Haydn’s contrapuntal mastery with tremendous conviction and marvelous cohesiveness.

Never before has human impotence been so cruelly portrayed on stage.

The Trøndelag Teater presents an opéra comique by André Grétry in a brilliant production by Julien Lubek and Cécile Roussat, under the inspired musical direction of Martin Wåhlberg.

The vocal items in this programme were the most successful, driven as they were by Bauer's searing interpretations.