Tao of Glass review – stage magic as McDermott meditates on the minimalist master

This multifaceted and intensely personal homage to – and collaboration with – composer Philip Glass is a transcendent tapestry suffused with joy and wonder.

theguardian.com

BBCSSO/Wigglesworth / Booth review – Brett Dean’s song cycle is rich and strange

Soprano Clare Booth, Ryan Wigglesworth and the BBC Scottish gave the world premiere of Dean’s theatrical and engaging The World’s Wife. Elgar’s 1st didn’t quite achieve lift-off but Weir’s Moon and St...

theguardian.com

CBSO/Yamada review – Poulenc and Adams pairing is stylish, witty and thrilling

Lucas and Arthur Jussen brought fun and energy to Poulenc’s Concerto for Two Pianos, and John Adams’ Harmonium was monumental and moving in the City of Birmingham Orchestra and Chorus’ Prom under thei...

theguardian.com

BBCPhil/Noseda/Selaocoe review – a proms concert that was everything the festival does best

A programme – Bach, Beethoven and a Jessie Montgomery premiere – that looked odd on paper made perfect sense in the hall, with Abel Selaocoe a mesmerising soloist in Montgomery’s ‘These Righteous Path...

theguardian.com

Spanish National Orchestra/Afkham review – Proms debut sees orchestra’s celebrations kick off early

Outgoing chief conductor David Afkham brought Spanish repertoire, castanets and a certain team’s football scarf in a programme heavy with national treasures

theguardian.com

First Night of the Proms review – 250th anniversary of US independence takes centre stage

From Copland to Gershwin and a new Emily Dickinson-based commission it was America’s evening – but with a surprise Mancunian encore

theguardian.com

Amadigi di Gaula review – inflatables and appoggiaturas as Handel takes a trip to Love Island

Olivia Fuchs’ delirious spin on the baroque opera comes with TV trickery, more hearts than a cardiologist convention and absolutely gorgeous singing

theguardian.com

La Liberazione di Ruggiero dall’Isola di Alcina review – 17th-century rarity is fun when it forgets to be earnest

Francesca Caccini’s 1625 work – the earliest surviving opera by a woman – is wildly imaginative, even without the original horse ballet

theguardian.com

Donizetti: La Fille du Régiment at the Royal Opera | Live Review - Opera Now

Floréz may have taken a couple of revivals off, but now the Peruvian tenor is back to reclaim the role

opera-now.com

Born to sing: John Holiday - The Tablet

“WHEN I GET SAD, I sing. If I’m angry, I sing. Music is a safe space – it’s where I feel seen, heard, loved. It’s the space where my heart is most open, where

thetablet.co.uk

Kazuki conducts Harmonium review – John Adams’ wild ride centres an elegant showcase of US composers

Adams’ maximal minimalism was framed by Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man and Joan Tower’s parallel feminist statement, with Florence Price’s The Heart of A Woman adding a Broadway flourish

theguardian.com

I puritani, Royal Opera House Covent Garden I OPER!

Covent Garden hat nach langer Zeit erstmals wieder I puritani im Programm. Kernaussage von Regisseur Richard Jones scheint dabei zu sein: Krieg ist universell. Aber reicht das, um die Oper zu tragen? ...

oper-magazin.de

Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin at Grange Festival | Live Review - Opera Now

The chorus were outstanding

opera-now.com

Ubuntu Ensemble review – charged musical snapshots of South Africa’s struggle

Marking the 50th anniversary of the Soweto uprising, a stirring programme culminated with Leon Bosch’s double bass sounding a fragile note of hope

theguardian.com

Anna Netrebko review – high camp and bel canto brilliance as star soprano shows she’s still the real deal

In this London recital the Russian singer moved from Rachmaninov to Mozart and Strauss to Charpentier, showcasing in all her voice’s full range of plush, dark beauty and endless legato

theguardian.com

Pelléas et Mélisande review at Snape Maltings, Suffolk: carefully calibrated

Raed our review of Pelléas et Mélisande at Snape Maltings, Suffolk: elegantly ambiguous, deeply atmospheric concert staging of Debussy’s only opera

thestage.co.uk

BBCSSO / Wigglesworth / Osborne review – jazz energy meets its match in French insouciance

Ryan Wigglesworth’s piano concerto, veering between tense, creepy and off-kilter, brought out the best in soloist Steven Osborne

theguardian.com

The Mahler Experiment review – physical drama comes at a musical cost in choreographed symphony

Tom Morris’s staged take on Mahler’s first symphony is valiantly performed by Stephanie Childress and Sinfonia Smith Square, but the result feels more like R&D than a finished product

theguardian.com

Mentors, muses and new music: conductor and composer Ryan Wigglesworth

The musician first visited Aldeburgh as a teenage fanboy. Now, he is at the centre of this year’s festival as its featured artist – and he’s opening with his favourite opera

theguardian.com

RBO/SHIFT at the Royal Opera House, London: through the AI looking-glass

Read our review of RBO/SHIFT at the Royal Opera House, London: four-day festival explores the future of the arts in the age of AI

thestage.co.uk

Manchester Camerata review – mental torments build up to a royal meltdown

A clever programme brought a mounting sense of lost grip, from Errollyn Wallen voicing the shame of Hamlet’s Ophelia, to Schumann’s fraught love declaration, and Peter Maxwell Davies’s Eight Songs for...

theguardian.com

Tavener: Krishna at Grange Park Opera | Live Review - Opera Now

Because there’s no development, only loops, there’s always the tantalising possibility that it might soon end. But it never does.

opera-now.com

Hampson and Sidorova review – style over substance with a whiff of the cruise ship

The US singer Thomas Hampson paired with accordionist Ksenija Sidorova to perform highlights from Schubert’s Winterreise alongside Weill and Piazzolla. Alas much of this disappointing evening felt lik...

theguardian.com

The indomitable spirit of the Wigmore Hall

If you’ve ever strolled to the Wallace Collection or hurried to an appointment in Harley Street, fled an overcrowded Selfridges or sat on a sunny bench in Cavendish Square Gardens, you’ll probably hav...

spectator.com

Dido and Aeneas review – close your eyes and this was a tremendous performance

The Monteverdi Choir’s account of Purcell’s opera was delivered with devastating clarity, but it was somewhat smothered beneath a 200ft ship’s hull

theguardian.com

Anne-Sophie Mutter review – star violinist celebrates 50 years in brilliant style

Mutter’s anniversary tour opened with a programme of Beethoven, André Previn and – ever a champion of new music – the European premiere of Aftab Darvishi’s Likoo, a rhapsodic lament for women under th...

theguardian.com

Shakespeare’s Sisters review: brilliantly unexpected songs and prose give voice to the voiceless

Combining words devised for Shakespeare’s female characters with music from composers old and new this was a Bardic treat with teeth

theguardian.com