Critics call time on Castorf's Ring while Barenboim shows Londoners how it should be done.

Opera Australia and Sydney Theatre Company return laden with honours from the 2013 awards ceremony. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

The Albert Herring co-stars on Britten, bad behaviour and bringing up a baby together.

Conductor berates his concertmaster but Albert Hall's Ring cycle receives rave reviews regardless.

Joyce DiDonato speaks out against homophobic bullying in schools after American teenager commits suicide. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

The artform has been much maligned over the years for farfetched stories, but beneath the nonsensical plots lurks buried treasure.

  It’s celebrations all round as Riccardo Chailly acknowledges Verdi’s bicentenary and his own 60th birthday with a disc of overtures, preludes and ballet music from some of the composer’s best-loved operas (and more than a few of his rarer specimens). Chailly’s crack band is the Filarmonica della Scala – the opera house with which Verdi himself was most closely associated and where Chailly launched his own career. Add to that the fact that Milan is the city where Verdi died and Chailly was born, and it would seem that all the stars are aligned. The conductor’s genius is to find that special something in the familiar – in this case the preludes from La Traviata and Aida, where he draws such a luminous sound from his string section that you’d be forgiven for thinking it was Wagner. There are some rollicking tub-thumpers too: the prelude to Nabucco and the perky Sinfonia from the seldom-staged Alzira. Drama takes centre stage with the brooding introduction to Gerusalemme (Verdi’s reworking of I Lombardi) and a passionately vibrant Forza del Destino overture. Chailly gauges everything to perfection and his classy orchestra brings out the detail of Verdi’s orchestration. If I found myself wanting…

Andris Nelsons concussed after “household accident” at Wagner Festival. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

David Robertson and a world-class crew bring the Dutchman triumphantly into port.

Conal Coad and Rachelle Durkin prove there’s no fool like an old fool in this operatic Roman Holiday homage.

Piotr Beczała is as near perfect a guide in Richard Tauber's repertoire as you could hope for.

Theatre turned opera director John Bell on bringing Puccini’s tragic opera to life. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in