John Relyea News Today

Berlioz’s "dramatic symphony" features vocal soloists and chorus, but the orchestra is the star of the show.

Bartok's nightmarish fairy-tale opera (the story is based on one written in 1697 by Charles Perrault) is the final offering of this season from English National Opera. Unusually for ENO, it's a semi-staged production, with a set consisting principally of a vast single table that crosses the front of the stage almost for its entire length. Even more unusually, it's sung in the original Hungarian with surtitles rather than in translation. It is, of course, the grimmest of tales. Duk...

From an evening with cellist Yo-Yo Ma and pianist Kathryn Stott to a spate of concerts from the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the season is brimming with an impressive variety of classical events. Arts critic Lloyd Schwartz rounds up the performances he's looking forward to.

There’s never a dull moment in Simon McBurney’s ingenious production, with Sarah Tynan and the ENO orchestra in fine fettle and a demented dalek-like Queen of the Night

From Withnail and I on stage to Olivia Rodrigo on tour, Sally Wainwright’s new drama to Blondie, Bruckner and Jez Butterworth, our experts guide you through the treats in store this year

Lise Davidsen is exceptional in Verdi’s masterly study of war and leadership; and Belfast is the focus of a bold four-woman collaboration on film

‘Goodness Triumphant’ is the subtitle of Rossini’s La Cenerentola, and you’d better believe he delivers. It’s the sweetest thing imaginable; true, the stepsisters are awful, but their spite bubbles over in streams of such sunny major-key effervescence that it’s hard to hold it against them. As for their father Don Magnifico, you can’t seriously hiss

A five-act grand opera, Don Carlo is composed by Giuseppe Verdi. Verdi made several changes to the music and further versions followed since the 1866 original.

The rising star, in her first major Verdi role, gives a tour de force of glorious singing in an otherwise unfocused production which struggles with character and dramatic intensity<strong><br></strong>

Fine voices aren't quite enough in Verdi's epic royal tragedy. Opera review by David Nice