En direct, Vidéo: Rechercher des critiques de musique classique, opéra et ballet | Grant Doyle

C’est que la Lucia de Bernadette Grimmett n’est pas révisionniste, et ne confond pas regard et distanciation : à rebours des malentendus transformant la meurtrière en vengeresse, et la victime en femme forte, Lucia n’apparaît ici qu’en elle-même. 

Henry Neill gives a devastating performance as Sam in Trouble in Tahiti in The Royal Opera’s Bernstein double bill in the Linbury Theatre. 

Christopher Alden, Chris Hopkins and an excellent cast send us a comic roller coaster ride with Verdi’s ultra-rarely performed second opera.

A Rossini comedy should sparkle, but this new production, starting its tour from Hackney, is decidedly lacking bubbles.

Rimsky-Korsakov's anti-tsarist satirical fairytale makes for an entertaining rarity in ETO's spring tour.

Jennifer France stars in Stephen Barlow's staging of The Cunning Little Vixen, set in the perfect surroundings of Holland Park. 

Wolf-Ferrari's Il segreto di Susanna provides an airy bon-bouche to Tchaikovsky's Iolanta, brilliantly sung by Natalya Romaniw and David Butt Philip and conducted to fairy-tale perfection by Sian Edwards

A fine cast, orchestra and production make English Touring Opera's new production of Verdi's Macbeth a must see. 

English Touring Opera’s new Radamisto took time to settle down on opening night.

Tough, thrilling, ambitious and new: The Skating Rink is an exciting new major commission by Garsington, and its world première delivered on every level.

A remarkable Leïla from Desiree Frahn and insightful direction from Michael Gow combine for a precious production of Bizet’s early masterpiece.

Johan Reuter is gripping in Krzysztof Warlikowski's powerful vision of the universal, timeless horrors of prison, but visual clutter distracts from Janáček’s music.

A searing examination of love in a time war is to be found in a new production and new edition of Rameau's greatest work.

A newly-orchestrated version of Jonathan Dove’s chamber opera drew some impressive performances from Heritage Opera in this pared-down adaption of Jane Austen’s third novel.

A fresh, yet traditional Magic Flute at Longborough uses puppetry to bring an atmosphere of fairytale onto the stage, with fine singing from a strong cast. 

Tchaikovsky's High Gothic opera about gambling obsessions is worth seeing for a first class staging, albeit with a mixed musical performance.

An even cast and a simple production makes Longborough Festival Opera's latest foray into aristocratic misdeeds a success.

English Touring Opera gives Gluck's reformist masterpiece a suitably blood-spattered outing in a production which keeps the opera in touch with its classical roots. 

Donizetti's back catalogue proves just as rich as his well-loved works, with this blisteringly good foray into an extraordinary opera whose UK premiere is 179 undeserved years late. 

For anyone seeing Carmen for the first time, this Royal Opera revival will have been a more than satisfactory evening. Old hands hoping to see something extra will find it in Hymel's Don José and Car's Micaëla, but not elsewhere.

James Conway’s production of La bohème may be a little restrained on banter, but hits all the emotional high notes, is compellingly played and superbly sung. 

Written half a century before the verismo movement, Donizetti paints a true-to-life portrait of a besieged people which is genuinely touching. James Conway's straightforward production features some notable individual singers and an excellent performance by the chorus.

In the opening scene of Pinchgut Opera's latest production, Gluck's rarely performed Iphigénie en Tauride, a swirling musical, dramatic and visually strobe-enhanced tempest is belted out. 

A beautiful and much-put-upon princess, a pair of royal lovers who have never met, a scheming mother, and a pirate who is a prince in disguise: Ottone is a feast of ideas, beauty and fun. 

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.

Just as we would often rather come out of a barber's with a haircut reasonably similar to the one with which we walked in, but just a bit smarter and tidier, sometimes it’s nice to see a well-known and much-loved opera done straight, and done well. 

A suitably rustic account of Janáček’s tale: seductive, engaging, and with a sense of intimacy ideal for this small venue.

English Touring Opera take Tippett’s powerful pacifist retelling of Homer’s Iliad on tour in a strong, beautifully designed production, directed by James Conway, which will leave hearts and minds in turmoil.

Bizet’s name, ever since the early (though by no means instant) success of his last opera and major bestseller Carmen, has become synonymous with the idea of catchy tunes and exotic soundworlds. That’s the composer who is with us most of the time.

English Touring Opera’s Verdi title for their Spring season in this composer’s (and Wagner’s) anniversary year is one of no small ambition. Premièred to only modest success in Venice in 1857, it would take Verdi another 20 or so years to return to Simon Boccanegra to try to fix the old “wobbly table” (as he and his librettist, Boito, later dubbed the 1857 version).

A trip to the opera at Garsington in its new, idyllic setting at Wormsley Estate, Buckinghamshire, is a fine treat even in the rain. And with a Don Giovanni production which, despite plenty of oddities, is light-hearted and often witty, an excellent evening of high-class entertainment is guaranteed.

The Barber of Seville and Eugene Onegin, the two operas being toured by English Touring Opera this season, share two things: they are both highly melodic stalwarts of the repertoire, and their plots both revolve around the writing of love letters.

Baritone Thomas Hampson recently quipped that he'd try anything other than Gilbert and Sullivan, echoing the sentiments of many opera fans who are inclined to see the operettas penned by the Victorian duo as the preserve of amateur dramatic societies and school drama clubs. With this in mind, it was somewhat surprising to see Opera North create a new production of Ruddigore back in 2010.