Performer: Natalie Dessay

Natalie Dessay’s recital at the Maison Symphonique last night should have been an art song lover’s dream come true. Instead the audience was treated to a bizarre spectacle of over-expression and under-singing.

Read our review of Willy Decker's production of Verdi's La Traviata in its 2012 broadcast from the Met Opera in New York.

The return of Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann to the stage of San Francisco Opera on Wednesday night was a welcome and long overdue event.

Read our review of David McVicar's production of Handel's Giulio Cesare in its 2013 broadcast from the Met Opera in New York.

David McVicar’s Giulio Cesare is still riotous at the Met, the production having transferred from Glyndebourne. This is a delicious, smart production, then, with interest for the brain, ears, and eyes alike.

From time to time, audiences are presented with what I consider to be a rare event, a “dream” performer: one so convincing in his or her role that they become an ideal, establishing a standard to which all following interpretations will inevitably be compared – for example, Jacqueline du Pré’s interpretation of Elgar’s Cello Concerto has become a timeless benchmark.