En direct, Vidéo: Rechercher des critiques de musique classique, opéra et ballet | Donald Maxwell

Sara Blanch's Covent Garden debut, together with Juan Diego Flórez on top form, lead a fizzing revival of La fille du régiment from Royal Opera.

The soprano's sumptuous Mimì is the main reason to catch the latest revival of Zeffirelli's La bohème at the Met. 

Franco Zeffirelli's perennial Bohème returns for yet another revival, with Federica Lombardi's luminous Mimì the standout performance. 

Unlike many Flutes, David McVicar's 2003 production treats Mozart's score as a proper opera, albeit with romp instead of pomp. 

Top drawer singing and comic acting bring out the comedy in Laurent Pelly's light-hearted production

A debuting conductor, two new singers, and a fine ensemble of singers bring unexpected joy to the Met's traditional La bohème with fresh and youthful energy.

Carlo Rizzi conducts WNO's Tosca revival in Cardiff.

When the entire plot is triggered by a freak accident, you can't blame director David Pountney for making Fate itself one of the key characters.  

In Thomas Guthrie’s revival of Sir David McVicar’s sober 2003 production of Mozart’s Singspiel, it was the pantomime elements of the show which registered strongly.

Scottish Opera may be admirably committed to Mascagni's under-appreciated opera, but the musical quality and vision are lacking.

Inventive comedy and excellent musicality bring Sir Thomas Allen’s traditional production back to life.

David Jones' First World War epic poem comes to musical life in Iain Bell's newly-commissioned opera. 

A clumsily directed, poorly sung Tosca at the ROH made for a dispiriting evening. 

This traditional production of Patience was strongly sung and acted and was a joyful evening.

With its latest incarnation of Die Zauberflöte, the Royal Opera ticks all the boxes in a strongly cast revival. 

Zeffirelli's La Bohème at the Met never fails to charm. Balance issues aside, a beautifully sung performance by a very capable cast.

It may not be perfect, but this rare chance to see Rossini's La gazzetta should not be missed, in a glitteringly elaborate production with a talented young cast, great choreography and even a pantomime camel...

In his programme note, director John Fulljames remarked that “any opera has many layers of authorship”, and that is truer of American Lulu than most.Alban Berg compiled the original libretto for Lulu (1929–34) from two plays by Frank Wedekind: Erdgreist (“Earth Spirit”, 1895) and Die Büsche der Pandora (“Pandora’s Box”, 1904). At the time of Berg”s death in 1935 the third act remained incomplete.

The Benjamin Britten centenary has inspired many groups into performing his works. The opera Noye’s Fludde was written to give amateur children a chance to perform and engage in operatic music alongside a smaller group of adult professional soloists. This performance was part of the Cheltenham Music Festival as their nod to Britten in the composer’s special year.

Jonathan Miller and ENO’s iconic interpretation of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado has returned to the London Coliseum this Christmas, to the delight of G&S fans across the capital, including myself.

One hundred and sixteen years ago, on 7 March 1896, Gilbert and Sullivan presented before the London public their final Savoy Opera: The Grand Duke.

Among the fourteen Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, it must be acknowledged that there are glimpses of weakness. The Gondoliers maintains one of Gilbert’s typically insane plots, which is best described as ‘topsy-turvy’ until the final scene, when order is restored. Likewise the music is far from Sullivan’s strongest score, but there are moments of inspired vocal writing.

After years of opera going, is it really still possible for me to be moved to tears by a tenor’s wail at the sight of a consumptive heroine dying tunefully in her bed at the end of the last act? I didn’t think so, but on the basis of last night’s Covent Garden performance of La Bohème, the answer would appear to be yes.

The nationality of Gaetano Donizetti's La Fille du Régiment is as confused as that of its eponymous heroine. Written by a homesick Italian expatriate for that most Parisian of venues the Opéra-Comique, it both continued Donizetti's Italian colonisation of the Paris opera scene (much bemoaned by Berlioz) and showed him adapting his style to the conventions of French theatre.

Originally penned by Joseph Conrad in 1903, Heart of Darkness deals with the deepest, most dangerous misunderstandings between human beings. Set during the era of imperialism, ship’s captain Charlie Marlow relates to his London dockyard comrades a disconcerting tale of a journey to the heart of an African jungle.

Gaetano Donizetti's commedia dell'arte-inspired Don Pasquale is one of the favourites in the opera buffa repertoire. At its ending, the assembled company boisterously enjoin us to remember that when an elderly man marries a much younger woman, no good can result.Apparently, the same is not true of an elderly conductor joining a much younger orchestra.

Jonathan Miller's much-loved production of The Mikado for English National Opera is now 25 years old and well remembered. But not, I confess by me. My last experience of Gilbert and Sullivan was on the other side of the curtain, as a sister, cousin or aunt in a school production of HMS Pinafore, an experience sufficiently scarring that I resolved never to go to a G&S opera again.

La Forza del Destino isn't performed nearly as often as Verdi's most popular works: this year's production at Opera Holland Park is the first time it's been staged in the UK for several years.

Read our review of Laurent Pelly's production of Donizetti­'s La Fille du Régiment in its 2008 broadcast from the Met Opera in New York.