En direct, Vidéo: Rechercher des critiques de musique classique, opéra et ballet | Andrew Rees

Pour la première de la saison lyrique romaine, Daniele Gatti amenait l’Orchestra e Coro del Teatro dell’Opera di Roma dans un Richard Wagner épuré.

Pour ce Tristan und Isolde proposé au Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Daniele Gatti dirige un Orchestre National de France très inspiré et un duo vocal en or, Torsten Kerl et Rachel Nicholls, étoiles d'une distribution équilibrée. Une production vraiment satisfaisante, dans une mise en scène soignée de Pierre Audi.

Dimanche 5 juillet au Barbican, le London Symphony Orchestra rejoint par des élèves de la Guildhall School et de nombreux choristes amateurs présentait "The Monster in the Maze" de Jonathan Dove, un opéra très enthousiasmant dirigé par Sir Simon Rattle, suivi par une symphonie de Walton elle aussi exaltante.

Jonas Kaufmann and Camilla Nylund tackle the roles of Tristan und Isolde for the first time in Andris Nelsons' all-Wagner concert. 

A strong cast, a lyrically simmering orchestra and lucid staging make this a Tristan und Isolde to treasure.

Woefully stiff acting lets down an otherwise excellent production; Joseph Calleja impresses in his role début as Cavaradossi.

Jenůfa unfurls with chilling intensity at Longborough with the talented Lee Bisset in the title role. 

At the basic level Tristan und Isolde is an opera of hormones, not happenings; fathoms deeper it explores human experience at a point where sense is dumb and flesh retires – as close to heaven and hell as it’s possible to go without first having to die.

Can classic opera reflect the political status of the society in which it is performed? Calixto Bieito's production of Turandot for Northern Ireland Opera raises some uncomfortable questions.

The Warsaw Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra offered a program of Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Their performance at Cadogan Hall had outstanding moments but overall felt unremarkable.

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.

Bringing Peter Grimes to Grange Park a year after the Britten centenary is an enormous challenge. With ‘Grimes on the Beach’ still fresh in the memory, the task of recreating the Suffolk coast in Hampshire’s idyllic countryside might have seemed a step too far. 

Celebrating the Wagner centenary in 1913, the Hallé Orchestra gave a concert performance in Manchester of Acts II and III from Wagner’s epic final masterpiece Parsifal.

In Act II of Tannhäuser, Hermann, Landgrave of Thuringia, sets the theme of the singing contest that is about to take place in his hall by asking: “Can you describe love’s nature to me?” To some extent, the entire opera is an examination of two very different answers to that question.

If your favourite part of opera is a soaring melody which stays in your head long after the opera is over, they don’t come much better than Un bel dì in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, in which our enraptured heroine sings of the day that her husband’s ship will reappear on the horizon. At Grange Park last night, Claire Rutter did it full justice.

History has cast a complex light on Wagner’s music and on Wagner the man. But Tristan & Isolde (Wagner’s enormous vision of erotic love) is an opera that can still resonate today. Nietzsche referred to its “dangerous fascinations”, “spine-tingling and blissful infinity“ and “voluptuousness”. This was Grange Park Opera’s first foray into Wagnerian opera.