En direct, Vidéo: Rechercher des critiques de musique classique, opéra et ballet | Anna Larsson

La mise en scène à Bastille de Robert Wilson, d’une grande poésie plastique et gestuelle, réussi le pari de ne pas sacrifier l’onirisme à l’opposition des contraires. L'opéra est servi par des interprètes excellents.

Après deux premiers concerts ayant présenté les deux premières symphonies de Gustav Mahler (1860-1911), il était temps pour Tugan Sokhiev, en cette fin de saison, de nous présenter la Troisième, la plus longue.

De Waart once again showed a formidable grasp of the musical structure so that the occasional outbursts of violence made thematic sense and a strong feeling of tension led up to the final cry of despair.

La Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de España inician la temporada midiéndose con Mahler. Con Christoph Eschenbach al frente ofrecieron una ejecución de riguroso calado y pericia.

Daniel Barenboim conducts much of Siegfried as an intimate chamber opera, resulting in an unexpected musical joy, with an excellent cast of singers headed by Michael Volle’s Wanderer.

Daniel Barenboim led a performance of deliberate tempo with a great ensemble of singers.  Guy Cassiers‘ production, while visually stunning at times, does little to enhance the performance.

A Ring cycle of sustained excellence closes with telling contributions from Foster, Vinke and Pesendorfer in the three lead roles.

A superb choral performance and some memorable solo moments bring Mahler's "Symphony of a Thousand" to life, even if the sheer energy of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra turns frantic at times.

Sir Mark Elder and The Hallé orchestra are the powerhouse in a memorable performance of Siegfried. Simon O’ Neill, Iain Paterson and Christine Goerke head up a universally strong cast.

An exemplary cast, an opulent orchestra and unforgettable images in Arnold Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder.

With this performance of Mahler's 'Resurrection' symphony, Bychkov has shown himself to be one of the composer's most interesting interpreters

Robert Hayward was unafraid to 'go ugly' when need be in Jurowski's symphonically executed concert performance. 

Nietzsche's Midnight Song is the stillest piece of music in all Mahler, and Treviño’s poise and Larsson’s rich voice cast a powerful and profound spell.

Magisterial playing and conducting underpin an outstanding, engrossing evening of Wagner at the Schiller Theater.

David Afkham, lo mejor que le ha pasado a la escena musical madrileña en mucho tiempo, volvió a brillar en esta versión semiescenificada, acompañado de un elenco vocal memorable.

Željko Lučić als Gast zu Haus: Wieder singt er eine hinreißende Partie an der Oper Frankfurt.

A strong performance at Staatsoper Berlin of the third opera of the Ring, Siegfried, was a showcase for tenor Andreas Schager in the title role.

The revival of Das Rheingold at Staatsoper Berlin was still marred by distracting use of dancers on stage, but musically it was a great success. 

Harding's brisk, unsentimental reading proves only intermittently successful, but is redeemed by excellent singing.

A blistering performance of Suor Angelica is the highlight of this strongly performed revival of Richard Jones' 2011 production.

Nina Stemme makes a memorable role debut as Elektra in Vienna in a new production set in a coal-filled basement of a 1910 Viennese town house.

Dutch National Opera opens its season with a musically and visually staggering world premiere: the first ever operatic staging of Arnold Schoenberg’s heaven-storming Gurre-Lieder.

There seemed to be an air of general disinterest surrounding the Oslo Philharmonic last Thursday. They were playing what on paper seemed like a fairly interesting programme, Grieg’s rarely heard orchestration of his Lyric Pieces, Mahler’s devastating Kindertotenlieder and Schumann’s triumphant Symphony no. 2, and yet it somehow didn’t seem like it was of much of interest to the orchestra.

The third part of Daniel Barenboim’s Ring cycle at the Proms proved to be similarly successful to the first two operas of the cycle, leaving both audience and conductor apparently delighted at its conclusion.The chief justification for “semi-staged” productions such as this is that they encourage greater focus on the music, and particularly on the orchestra.

A Beethoven cycle last year, The Ring this year: what will Daniel Barenboim bring to the 2014 Proms? Perhaps, given the recent success of extracts both at the Proms and at Lincoln Center Festival, the smart money is on Karlheinz Stockhausen’s 29-hour, seven-opera cycle Licht. Then again, perhaps not.

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.

Murder. Suicide. Grand larceny. Puccini's triptych of short operas, two tragedies followed by a riotous farce, always makes for an evening of variety, with the potential for many snatches of greatness.

Prom 32 featured two works written in the same year, 1878, by composers who worked mainly in the same city, Vienna. Brahms was an established composer when he wrote his Violin Concerto for his virtuoso friend Joseph Joachim, while Mahler was just 17 when he started writing Das klagende Lied for a competition (the version played tonight was completed in 1880).

There are few greater disappointments than an event which fails to live up to high expectations: film adaptations of favourite books and the January sales seem like obvious examples of events which are often perfectly pleasing but drowned under hype.