This summer’s Salzburg Festival chatter was dominated by the enthusiastic reviews of the new production of Richard Strauss’ Salome and its new star soprano Asmik Grigorian.

Madrid pulled together an absolute dream production of Gaetano Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, with a cast few houses could even think about. This production by David Alden, first commissioned for the English National Opera in 2008, sets the scene in

Berlin’s Deutsche Oper, the opera company based in the Western section of the formerly divided city, put on grand opera at its most opulent with Amilcare Ponchielli’s La Gioconda. Rarely performed these days due to the work’s staggering length, large

Set in 1962, when England was on the cusp of the Swinging Sixties, ‘On Chesil Beach’ by British author Ian McEwan examines the tension between the modern (represented by the male character Edward) and an earlier, more sexually repressed age

In the late summer of their careers, divas like to stake out some territory that ensures their legacy. Maria Callas championed bel canto rarities, Cecilia Bartoli reinvigorated baroque treasures, Joyce di Donato promotes contemporary American Jake Heggie. A cursory overview

A few years ago, I heard Stephen Hough in concert in a programme of “serious” music: the premiere of his ‘Trinity’ Piano Sonata III alongside Cèsar Franck’s mighty Prelude, Chorale & Fugue, plus works by Liszt and Schubert. And the

The new Lohengrin at the Royal Opera House, a co-production with Opera Vlaanderen, is musically a very fine production. What it lacks, however, is a unifying concept. Neither direction (David Alden), stage set (Paul Steinberg) nor costumes (Gideon Davey) came

Schubert works for piano duet and piano soloMaria João Pires & Ricardo CastroDeutsch Grammophon 2004 I was given this album by a friend for my 40th birthday in autumn 2006. I thought turning 40 would be easy: I told myself