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The Guardian - Back to homeThe Guardian

Classical music & opera

  • WNO rehearsals for Death in Venice

    ‘We’re all agog’:
    Behind the scenes at Welsh National Opera’s Death in Venice – a photo essay

  • Vivid colour: Roderick Williams as the voice of Dionysus with Mark Le Brocq as Aschenbach in Britten’s Death in Venice, staged by Welsh National Opera.

    Review
    Death in Venice – Britten’s final opera soars in WNO’s captivating staging

    Olivia Fuchs’ new production casts aerialists as the Polish family to stunning effect. Mark Le Brocq is a sympathetic Aschenbach and Leo Hussain conducts with a sure hand
  • the Facebook ad from Queensland Symphony Orchestra.

    ‘The worst AI-generated artwork we’ve seen’
    Queensland Symphony Orchestra’s Facebook ad fail

    A ‘poorly considered’ use of AI has resulted in a perplexing number of fingers – and a large amount of mockery

Live reviews

  • Jennifer Davis (Jenůfa) and Susan Bullock (Kostelnicka) in Jenufa, English National Opera directed by David Alden at the London Coliseum.

    Jenůfa review – Alden’s harrowing staging remains a formidable piece of theatre

  • Outstanding … members of the Nash Ensemble with Konstantin Krimmel at Wigmore Hall, London.

    Nash Ensemble: Terezín-Theresienstadt review – incredibly moving survey of composers lost to the Holocaust

  • Edward Gardner conducting the LPO in Harnasie at the Royal Festival Hall.

    Dance Reimagined review – LPO and Wayne McGregor are a dream team, but AI lets them down

  • Memorable … Bryn Terfel as The Dutchman and Elisabet Strid as Senta in The Flying Dutchman.

    The Flying Dutchman review – Terfel still owns this role, and Elisabet Strid’s Senta soars

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Album reviews

  • Andreas Scholl

    Classical home listening: Má vlast with the Czech Phil; Andreas Scholl revisits Vivaldi’s Stabat Mater

  • Elīna Garanča and Jonas Kaufmann in Parsifal.

    Wagner: Parsifal album review – Elīna Garanča is extraordinary in a very fine account of Wagner’s fascinating score

  • Pablo Heras Casado & Mahler Chamber Orchestra Press publicity image supplied by PR Credit: Mathias Benguigui

    Stravinsky: Pulcinella Suite – Falla: El Retablo de Maese Pedro album review – fascinating and intense

  • Impeccable … Quatuor Agate.

    Quatuor Agate: Brahms – The String Quartets album review – a suave and refined debut

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People

  • Fanny: The Other Mendelssohn

    ‘Music for you must only be an ornament’
    How Fanny Mendelssohn’s voice was stifled, then saved

  • Martyn Brabbins rehearsing with English National Opera Orchestra at the Henry Wood Hall in London.

    News
    ENO’s music director resigns over proposed cuts to musical staff positions

  • Joana Mallwitz

    Conducting
    Joana Mallwitz is the first woman to lead a Berlin orchestra. And, no, she hasn’t seen Tár

  • Christian Thielemann

    News
    Christian Thielemann picks up baton as director of Berlin State Opera from old rival

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You may have missed

  • Guy Johnston practising The Protecting Veil at the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of Divine Wisdom, February 2024

    ‘He had a mystical aura’
    Cellist Guy Johnston on John Tavener’s masterpiece The Protecting Veil

  • Violinist Elena Urioste and pianist Tom Poster. 2023

    Soaring, searching and silent for too long
    The remarkable life – and music – of composer Mel Bonis

  • Visitors queue at Halberstadt’s St Burchardi church in September 2020 for the 14th sound change in John Cage’s composition, Organ²/ASLSP As Slow as Possible.

    ‘There’s a certain madness to it'
    Fans await new chord in John Cage gig with 616 years left to run

  • Hugely demanding … Prometeo by Luigi Nono is restaged at Chiesa di San Lorenzo, Venice.

    The stuff of legend
    Luigi Nono’s extraordinary Prometeo returns to Venice

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Guides

  • 1216 Portrait of Ethel Smyth<br>PBBHMT 1216 Portrait of Ethel Smyth

    Know the score
    Without Ethel Smyth and classical music's forgotten women, we only tell half the story

    Leah Broad
  • From left: The Tempest, The Minotaur, L’amour de loin, Hamlet

    The best classical music works of the 21st century

  • A guide to contemporary classical music

  • Fireworks light the sky above the Brandenburg Gate shortly after midnight in Berlin, Friday, Jan. 1, 2016. Hundred of thousands of people gathered for the New Year celebrations, welcoming the new year 2016 at the area around the Brandenburg Gate in the capital of Germany. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

    A musical tour of Europe
    Stephen Moss's guide to the music of Europe's great cities: Berlin

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