Venue: Oslo Opera House, Stage 2

A Tale about Swan Lake ticks all the boxes as an introduction to ballet for young audiences while offering a version that adult lovers of the work can thoroughly enjoy.

Strømgren’s choreography is remarkably eloquent with emotionally charged movement in a fast-paced performance with a serious message.

The Oslo Chamber Academy served up a wonderful selection of German, French and Czech chamber music for winds, not to mention an array of unexpected sonorities.

Simon Steen-Andersen’s genre-bending opera Buenos Aires tackles fascinating questions about human communication and the very nature of opera and music. Sadly, these questions sometimes got lost in unecessarily strange stage antics.

The Studio for New Music is a Russian contemporary music ensemble, and is the ensemble-in-residence of the Moscow Conservatory. At this concert at the Oslo Opera House, their first in Norway, they presented a programme of Russian music, ranging from Stravinsky’s 1914 song cycle Pribaoutki to Vladimir Tarnopolski’s 2001 piece Chevengur for soprano and chamber ensemble.