Carmen review – Chaieb beguiles as the tragic heroine in uneven production

Opening the 2024 festival, Diane Paulus’s staging relocates Bizet’s tragedy to a grim present day. Rihab Chaieb is a strong Carmen, Dmitry Cheblykov’s Escamillo shines but Dmytro Popov’s José doesn’t convince

Antonio Pappano Gala review – farewell concert celebrates the best thing that has happened to the Royal Opera

Singers including Jonas Kaufmann joined newer vocal stars such as Aigul Akhmetshina to honour the much loved music director on an evening that ended with the royal seal of approval

L’Olimpiade review – clever and effective Vivaldi staging with music of heartstopping beauty

Daisy Evans’s production of Vivaldi’s 1734 tragicomedy for Irish National Opera is slow to reveal its secrets but it’s well worth your patience, and the music is glorious and beautifully sung

The week in classical: Le nozze di Figaro; Larmes de couteau/ Full Moon in March review – all shook up

Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov plays fast and loose with Mozart in his striking new horror-thriller take on Figaro, coming to Edinburgh this summer. Elsewhere, elegant anarchy in a surreal Royal Opera double bill

Brian: The Cenci album review – composer’s lack of flair for music drama all too evident

Havergal Brian’s third opera, a reworking of Shelley’s play of renaissance corruption and incest, sparks only intermittently into dramatic life

Larmes de Couteau/Full Moon in March review – two supremely weird operas

Bohuslav Martinů’s 1928 work is a strip-lighted nightmare whirlwind, while Harbison’s is highly stylised post-tonal sitcom unfolding around a four-poster bed

Götterdämmerung review – Jurowski’s six-year completion of Wagner’s Ring cycle was well worth the wait

Jurowski’s attention to detail across four-and-a-half hours brought the darkness of Wagner’s score thrillingly to life

The week in classical: Lucia di Lammermoor; Nash Ensemble; Anthony McGill and Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective – review

A fearless central performance anchors Katie Mitchell’s busy yet insightful Donizetti revival. And two chamber concerts serve as a vibrant prelude to this year’s BBC Proms…

Adams: Girls of the Golden West album review – California gold rush opera has a definitive recording

The opera met with a mixed response on its 2017 premiere. After two reworkings, and with many of its original cast reprising their roles, this premiere recording is a rich and energetic mix

Lucia di Lammermoor review – a vocally breathtaking, disturbing to witness descent into madness

Nadine Sierra is sensationally good as Lucia in this revival of Katie Mitchell’s production of Donizetti’s romantic tragedy – a dark, thoughtful and sometimes shocking interpretation for the post-#MeToo era

Simon Boccanegra review – vast forces bring Verdi’s ‘fiasco’ to vivid life

Opera Rara joined with the Hallé under Sir Mark Elder for this semi-staged performance of the original version of Verdi’s opera

The week in classical: Carmen; National Youth Chamber Choir/ OAE/Jeannin; LSO/ Roth review – from Habanera to doo-wop

Aigul Akhmetshina steals the show in Damiano Michieletto’s uneven new 70s-set Bizet. And in a good week for world premieres, four composers take on Handel while the London Symphony Orchestra channels death metal

Aci by the River review – just add water for a stylish rethink of Handel

Riveting performances underpin a gratifyingly meta version of Aci, Galatea e Polifemo, retold around a Docklands film shoot

Rose in Bloom album review – crystalline debut of a new high coloratura star

Erin Morley brings artless precision and liquid phrasing to her debut recording

Carmen review – Aigul Akhmetshina is electrifying in simmering, naturalistic staging

Conjuring the oppressive Mediterranean heat and the claustrophobia of a fraying close-knit community, Damiano Michieletto’s new production of Bizet’s tragedy is rich with drama and potent