En direct, Vidéo: Rechercher des critiques de musique classique, opéra et ballet | Julian Crouch

The leafy parks and cobbled streets of Riga’s old town are far removed from the intense heat of the little village in the Basque Country in which Donizetti set his L'elisir d'amore, but a new production at the Latvian National Opera captures much of the spirit of the work, adroitly balancing comedy with the joys and pain of love.

Die neue Inszenierung am Gürtel transportiert das Publikum in einen göttlichen Wiener Olymp.

Phelim McDermott's popular staging of Satyagraha, which verges on the lush and the voluptuous, is revived to open English National Opera's season.

Sven-Eric Bechtolf's staging holds a balance between philosophy and humour, but Adam Fischer's vivacious conducting is the real star of the evening.

A mixed-bag of an evening at the Sydney Opera House, with a production of Ernani imported from La Scala failing to solve the inherent challenges of the work, despite good performances from the cast.

Wheeldon’s Cinderella is the kind of production that so enthralls, you immediately want to make plans to see it again.

In the tiring role of Menelaus Andreas Schager was a mighty Heldentenor, combining impressive sound power with a dazzling colour and without ever showing a moment of fatigue.

Dominic Cooke’s Magritte-inspired production returns to Wales Millennium Centre to keep the audience giggling. 

Atmosphärische und kaleidoskopisch bunte Bilder machen King Arthur zu einem beeindruckenden Gesamtkunstwerk.

Lotte de Beer’s Il barbiere di Siviglia for Dutch National Opera seems a surprisingly traditional spectacle... although it does come with a twist.

The cast, sets, costumes and direction of Muhly's opera Marnie impress, but the music somehow falls short of expectations.

After appearances in London and New York, Phelim McDermott's bold and imaginative production of Philip Glass’ Satyagraha arrives in Los Angeles.

Verdi's fifth opera can be considered a blueprint for Trovatore and deserves a more regular place in the repertoire, but it needs more sincere advocacy than Bechtolf is prepared to grant.

Glass' meditation on Gandhi's principles of non-violent resistance is powerfully treated in Phelim McDermott's virtuosic 2007 staging.

A conventional and quite predictable staging of Lehár’s most famous operetta was saved by dedicated musicians.

A decent cast was unable to redeem a fundamentally dull opera that lacks the psycholgical complexity and tension of both the original Graham novel and its famous Hitchcock adaptation.

Bechtolf's seductively imaginative staging consists in a flat pack fairytale world full of surprises that delight like the contents of a pop up book.

Under the baton of René Jacobs, the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin dazzles in the Staatsoper's production of Purcell's "dramatick opera". 

Love, light, levity, life. A joyful performance of Franz Lehár's Parisian operetta offers catharsis in troubling times. 

Christopher Wheeldon's Dutch National Ballet production of Cinderella takes a fresh look at Prokofiev's ballet, but the magic comes from Julian Crouch's stunning sets and costumes.

The first ballet company appearing in this year’s Hong Kong Arts Festival was the Dutch National Ballet, with Christopher Wheeldon’s production of Cinderella. 

Lothar Koenigs conducts a stylish, colourful Magic Flute inspired by Magritte. 

Only the slightest of quibbles with a fun, frothy new production of The Merry Widow at The Met. 

This is ENO’s third outing for this production of the Philip Glass classic since its debut in 2007 – and no wonder, when it combines an adventurous artistic vision with surefire commercial success in a way that director’s opera so often doesn’t.

Read our review of Phelim McDermott's production of The Enchanted Island by Jeremy Sams in its 2008 broadcast from the Met Opera in New York.