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Classical music & opera

  • Louise Alder as the Countess, with Huw Montague Rendall as the Count, in in Le Nozze Di Figaro at Glyndebourne.

    Classical music
    ‘The cultural landscape is decimated’: Louise Alder on stage fright, arts funding and the Last Night of the Proms

    The great soprano will be the first British singer to top the bill at the Last Night in over a decade. So why does she advise her younger colleagues to leave the country?
  • Martin Kettle

    Art and politics are not the same thing – but the Anna Netrebko case shows what happens when they collide

    Martin Kettle
  • Amanda Majeski as Katerina and Nicky Spence as Sergey in Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth at the BBC Proms.

    Proms 2025 review
    Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District – semi-staged Shostakovich is vivid and claustrophobic

  • Rodion Shchedrin and Maya Plisetskaya in 2006.

    News
    Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin, known for Anna Karenina ballet, dies aged 92

  • Concert in Oslo - Pekka Kuusisto with Katarina Barruk, press image

    ‘It’s a symbol of hope and defiance for Ume Sámi and its speakers’: singer Katarina Barruk on her Proms debut

  • Martin Kettle

    As Putin’s bombs fall on Ukraine, the Royal Opera House had a call to make about Anna Netrebko. It made the wrong one

    Martin Kettle
  • Klaus Mäkelä conducts Janine Jansen with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall.

    Proms 2025 review
    Royal Concertgebouw/Mäkelä – Proms showcase legendary orchestra and its star signing

Live reviews

  • Jonathon Heyward conducts the Chineke! pOrchestra at the BBC Proms.

    Chineke! Orchestra/Heyward review – kaleidoscopic concert combines energy and complexity

  • Edward Jowle, Lea Shaw and Daniel Barrett in Scottish Opera's production of L'heure espagnole. Credit Sally Jubb.

    L’heure espagnole/The Bear review – Scottish opera pairs Ravel with Walton in pacy pantomimic staging

  • Thomas Adès Conducts the BBCSO at the Proms, 2 September

    BBCSO/Adès review – Adès held the orchestra as if under a spell

  • Potentially peak Pekka Prom … back left, Pekka Kuusisto; forward right, Katarina Barruk.

    Norwegian Chamber Orch/ Kuusisto/Barruk review – Proms first as Ume Sámi songs take centre stage

Recordings

  1. Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra.

    Nielsen: Clarinet Concerto; Helios; Symphony No 5 album review – suavity and elegance from Gardner’s Bergen Phil

  2. Spunicunifait.

    Mozart: Six String Quintets album review – deep understanding of these under-appreciated works

  3. Julian Bliss

    Lindberg & Aho: Clarinet Concertos album review – Julian Bliss’s performances are immaculate

  4. Mahan Esfahani.

    Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1 album review – Mahan Esfahani’s reading is lucid and illuminating

People

  • Amelia Freedman

    Amelia Freedman obituary

  • Speaking across boundaries of culture, creed and generation … Arvo Pärt, photographed at home in Estonia in 2014.

    The god of small things: celebrating Arvo Pärt at 90

  • Robert Wilson - (c) Lucie Jansch 2011

    News
    Robert Wilson, theatre director and visual artist, dies aged 83

  • Sir Roger Norrington c. Manfred Esser press image supplied by Katy Bell reviews15feb16

    Roger Norrington: a maverick, an irresistible firebrand and a musical visionary

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  1. Sir John Tavener in his study at home in Child Okeford, Dorset, Britain - 05 Jun 2007<br>Mandatory Credit: Photo by Workers' Photos / Rex Features (1808318i) Sir John Tavener Sir John Tavener in his study at home in Child Okeford, Dorset, Britain - 05 Jun 2007

    Eight hours, 250 singers… and as many bananas as it takes: Tavener’s Veil of the Temple

  2. Nicholas McCarthy, left-hand-only pianist, press, publicity photo

    Left turns: How a terrible war injury led to the birth of one-handed piano music

  3. Berlin - Staatsoper PARSIFAL<br>(GERMANY OUT) Deutschland, BerlinOrt: Staatsoper Berlin. Festival: Festtage 2005. Titel: Parsifal. Autor: Richard Wagner. Musikal. Leitung: Daniel Barenboim. Insz.: Bernd Eichinger. Buehne: Jens Kilian. Kostueme: Andrea Schmidt-Futterer. Premiere: 19. Maerz 2005Darst.: Hanno Mueller-Brachmann (M), Christof Fischesser. (o.) (Photo by Lieberenz/ullstein bild via Getty Images)

    From the sacred to the profane: the Wagners, Bayreuth and Parsifal

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