Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews

Impressive Ravel from Benedetto Lupo, with pleasing Debussy and Delius, and a strong performance of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring from Juanjo Mena and the LPO.

A terrific cast in the Metropolitan Opera's revival of La bohème... “near the top of a lifetime of Bohèmes” for our reviewer. 

There was depth and intensity from Steven Isserlis and Alexander Melnikov in this intriguing programme of Russian cello sonatas from old hands and new brooms.

Alessandro Talevi's production of Don Giovanni, conducted by Christoph Altstaedt, receives a welcome revival at the Grand Theatre, Leeds. 

Kosky’s The Nose hits Sydney, sweeping the audience along with hallucinogenic energy. Led by the outstanding Martin Winkler and John Tomlinson, singers and musicians deliver a wild evening's entertainment.

Jake Heggie's spectacular vocal writing combine with Terence McNally's perfectly paced libretto to provide intense music drama which forces you to confront darkness.

Mezzo soprano Karen Cargill and the Scottish Ensemble guest-led by Matthew Truscott in a programme of music from Purcell to Stravinsky all inspired by tales from Ancient Greece.

Despite a great cast, the Metropolitan Opera's revival of Semiramide bores with tacky costumes and no direction.

Úrsula López, Tamara López and Leonor Leal present *Painter and Flamenco: J.R.T.*as part of Sadler's Wells' 2018 Flamenco Festival 

A second concert featuring Jordi Savall at the 2018 Perth Festival comprised much reduced forces - just himself and harpist Andrew Lawrence-King - but was just as rich, varied and captivating.

Jordi Savall, Hespèrian XXI and Tembembe Ensamble Continuo brought an exciting mix of instrumental playing, song and dance presenting Baroque and pre-Baroque music from Spain and the New World.

With many costume changes, notably into a Sun-King with very prominent phalic sunburst, Houtzeel held centre-stage in the title role.

Tiler Peck is at her peak as an artist and let’s hope it lasts a long time.

In a passage through filmic history in the search of monstors and heroes, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra explored contemporary film and game music.

John Storgårds conducts Simon Holt’s percussion concerto and Mahler 7 with the BBC Phiharmonic

Boston's Odyssey Opera performs a rarity: Arthur Honegger's Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher, a dramatic oratorio inspired by medieval mystery plays. 

A mixed programme of Corelli, Handel and Pergolesi brings beauty and spiritual intensity, as well as some empowered erotic playfulness, to an evening with the Academy of Ancient Music. 

Salonen's tribute to Gehry, Yasuhisa Toyota and Deborah Borda seems to come more from his brilliant visual palette than his emotional heart. 

Guest conductor Bernard Labadie introduced Henri-Joseph Rigel’s music to Cleveland, as well as leading Mozart’s Symphony no. 40, K550.

Written on Skin is a cold but effective opera full of musical and dramatic energy. Opera Philadelphia's new staging and talented young cast do it justice.

Despite some fascinating, impressive and often beautiful moments, the consistent refusal to give the audience time to applaud, pause and digest what they had just heard turned the evening into a wash of death songs.

San Francisco Ballet delivers the distinct and the relevant in a mixed-bill program of choreographic works that includes Ghosts in the Machine.

Made in 2014, Yo Carmen was featured in last year’s Edinburgh Festival.  It is a show with a powerful message and one which is occasionally riveting, mostly when Pagés herself is the focus of attention.

With so little of worth happening onstage, this performance requires a unanimously strong set of performances from the main cast.

How do you prepare a new production at a major opera house, then stroll across the Thames to lead a fine and distinctive Mahler Five? 

Maurice Ravel opened his 1928 tour of the United States conducting a series of concerts with the Boston Symphony featuring his own music.

After Joshua Bell's fine Wieniawski, the Philadelphia Orchestra's account of the Leningrad Symphony took this concert to a higher plane. 

Tomáš Netopil directs ideal, ‘non-dairy’ performances of Mozart and Dvořák.

New York Philharmonic, under the strong leadership of its incoming music director, demonstrated that they can perform opera as well as symphonies in an impressive performance of Act 1 of Die Walküre.

Weill's neglected "American Opera" opens in Madrid with a refurbished production by John Fulljames and a strong cast led by Patricia Racette.

Interesting ideas and a brilliant orchestral performance aren't enough to overcome a visually dull staging, predictable choreography and a lack of chemistry between the protagonists.

A strongly cast revival of The Winter's Tale by The Royal Ballet confirms one of Shakespeare's "problem plays" as perhaps being best suited to dance. 

In their Sydney season-opener, the ACO with guest players from ANAM deliver a thoroughly satisfying account of two 19th-century standards and introduce two new works to Australian audiences.

From the ethereal to the galavanting, the program offered a spectrun of emotions delivered with precise technique and abandoned energy. 

Cal McCrystal goes long on the ham and keeps the gags flowing in a visually stunning production that will delight G&S lovers.

In the sublime funeral march of the Larghetto Elder set a daringly slow tempo, producing a cumulative, sorrowing eloquence as each LSO section tossed its melodic tribute on to the passing cortège.

Made up of aspiring professional dancers from eight different nations, the Junior Ballett Zürich performs a programme of internationally renowned choreographers every two years.

The Ferenc Liszt Chamber Orchestra showcased two very promising young Hungarian pianists, Krisztián Kocsis and Ádám Balogh, at Müpa.

A majestic Mahler 4 from the Philharmonia under Lahav Shani, crowned by Chen Reiss’ wide-eyed rendition of Das himmlische Leben. 

A passionless staging of Wagner's masterpiece throws cold water on Barenboim's fiery conducting at the Staatsoper.

Tommaso Traetta’s Antigona is given a powerful staging, although not all the voices proved big enough for its mythical subject.

Kevin Puts effectively shapes the time-traveling structure with distinctive sound worlds as thirty dramatic vignettes unfold across a little more than an hour and a half.

In yet another intriguing programming maneuver, Seattle Symphony music director Ludovic Morlot devoted this weekend’s performances to the subject of heroism.

Riccardo Muti brought a Verdian quality to Brahms’ Second Symphony, adding a certain Italian volatility and declamatory grandeur to the music.

With Andris Nelsons about to debut as Kapellmeister at the Leipzig Gewandhaus, a collaboration with his Boston Symphony was inaugurated in style. 

The London Philharmonic Orchestra, Vladimir Jurowski and the soloist Ray Chen offer the next instalment in a series showcasing the works of Stravinsky and their historical influences.

In a sensational Hungarian double bill of taut psychological drama at Müpa, Péter Eötvös' Senza sangue proves a thrilling partner to Bartok’s Bluebeard’s Castle.

Resident soloist Jorge Federico Osorio continues his Beethoven Piano Concerto cycle with Guest Conductor Roberto Abbado and the Atlanta Symphony.

With a pianist of the calibre of Jan Lisiecki, Krzysztof Urbański has created an award winning collaboration which puts the two Poles way apart from many other soloist-conductor combinations. 

Royal Northern Sinfonia's popular Conductor Laureate Thomas Zehetmair makes a well-received return visit to Sage Gateshead, with symphonic music ranging from an exquisite jewel by Webern through to a fizzing performance of Schubert's "Great" Ninth.