classical music & opera
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Behind the scenes at the Last Night of the PromsPhotographer Teri Pengilly was given exclusive access to the Royal Albert Hall on Saturday to watch preparations for the biggest night in classical music’s calendar -
Norma, Royal Opera House, LondonÀlex Ollé’s reimagining of Bellini’s tragedy is beautiful at times, but the over-dominant stagecraft sometimes distracts from the profoundly human drama
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Oliver Mears to be Royal Opera House's director of operaThe 37-year-old has led Northern Ireland Opera for the past six years; Antonio Pappano hails his ‘genuine passion for the art form’ -
Our critics' proms highlights - what were yours?From Barenboim to Blomstedt, Reich to Rossini and Argerich to Alsop, our music writers pick their highlights from the 2016 proms. Do you agree?
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Lauren MichelleLorde, Little Dragon and Missy Elliot, Mozart, Britten and Puccini - the US soprano and Cardiff Singer of the World finalist shares the music that she loves
facing the music
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Joseph Calleja: 'All tenors sound like Otello in the shower'The tenor loves the Beatles, gets cosy to Nat King Cole and would have loved to sing with von Karajan
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Aleksandar Marković: 'Abbey Road is the best and most inspired pop record ever made'Opera North’s music director on wishing he was a fly on the wall to see Wagner compose, why MP3 players are spoiling us for live music and his would-be career as a sci-fi author
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Daniel Barenboim on ageing, mistakes and why Israel and Iran are twin brothersAt 73, the conductor is still lobbying presidents and bellowing at the violins in five languages. But has his passion project – an orchestra of players from across the Middle East – achieved any real change? We meet him in Buenos Aires
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A musical tour of Europe’s great cities: HelsinkiIn the fourth in our series, we look at the Finnish capital and its music
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you may have missed
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Sally Beamish: how the theft of my viola turned me into a composerLosing one voice helped Sally Beamish find another. Two decades later she has come full circle. She tells how her daughter, her mentor Peter Maxwell Davies – and a blackbird – have inspired her new work, and her own return to playing
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Musical families: 'She takes a lot more liberties when she’s playing with me!'What’s it like to play a cello concerto written by your brother? To conduct your wife? To sing alongside your daughter? Michael Hann meets the classical musicians who are keeping it all in the family this Proms season
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Shakespeare's magical music box: the sound of rapture at the GlobeExquisite harmonies, by candlelight, transported audiences in 1600s London out of filthy streets into a gilded world of kings and star-cross’d lovers. Composer-director Claire van Kampen explains why music was a key factor in the Bard’s success
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The Exterminating Angel – a turning point for Adès, and operaAdès’s macabre, fabulously inventive take on Buñuel’s film felt like a turning point for the composer – and for opera itself
guides
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Tom Service's survey of the 50 symphonies that changed musical historyTom Service's survey of the 50 symphonies that changed classical music
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A guide to contemporary classical musicTom Service introduces 50 composers from the contemporary classical music scene
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Feature André Tchaikowsky: from Warsaw to Belmont via a wardrobe - David Pountney on the maverick composer