Don Jo, Grimeborn review - conceptual style over musical substance

Queer take on Mozart shines interesting light on the story, but casts music in the shade

Described as a "performer-led re-devising’"of Mozart’s 1787 opera Don Giovanni - a tale of an arrogant and ruthless lothario who seduced countess women - Don Jo certainly played around with many of the norms we encounter in both sexual relationships and in the operatic genre.

Prom 51: Die Zauberflöte, Glyndebourne review - smooth classic without depth

★★★★ PROM 51: DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE, GLYNDEBOURNE Smooth classic without depth

Imported gags work when comedy's intended but get in the way of seriously good singing

Can we go back to an older Glyndebourne-at-the-Proms vintage, where the chosen production was merely sketched out with variations suited to the venue, and performed in whatever evening dress might be appropriate?

Prom 26: BBCNOW, Stutzmann review – a banquet of fervent favourites

★★★★ PROM 26: BBCNOW, STUTZMANN A banquet of fervent favourites

Brahms, Wagner and Mozart's Requiem make for an enjoyably old-fashioned feast

Not every Prom has to push musical boundaries or bust concert conventions. On the face of it, last night’s programme from the BBC National Orchestra of Wales (and National Chorus of Wales) stuck to a thoroughly traditional recipe. Two familiar 19th-century orchestral warhorses cantered out for the first half, followed by a beloved choral blockbuster delivered by massive forces who engendered a big, hearty, hall-filling – dare I say Victorian? – sound.

Die Zauberflöte, Glyndebourne Festival review – high jinks in the Grand Mozart Hotel

★★★ DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE, GLYNDEBOURNE FESTIVAL High jinks in the Grand Mozart Hotel

Some delicious singing cuts through fanciful upstairs-downstairs frolics

Die Zauberflöte rarely attracts the plain cooks of the operatic world. Mozart’s farewell opera chucks so many highly-spiced ingredients into its outlandish pot – pantomime and parable, burlesque and ritual – that many productions opt for one show-off recipe that promises to unify all its flavours into a single, spectacular dish.

Don Giovanni, Longborough Festival Opera review - Mozart in the urinal

★★ DON GIOVANNI, LONGBOROUGH Coarsened, disembowelled and only quite well sung

Coarsened, disembowelled and only quite well sung

One of the features of the converted barn that forms the theatre at Longborough is a trio of statues that tops the front pediment of the building: Wagner, flanked by Verdi on the right and Mozart on the left. No one could question Wagner: Longborough has done him proud.

Alder, The Mozartists, Page, Wigmore Hall review - a Mozart feast for eyes and ears

★★★★★ ALDER, THE MOZARTISTS, PAGE, WIGMORE HALL A Mozart feast for eyes and ears

Period-instrument thrills and a state-of-the-art soprano

Seven European cities, seven works: from an eight-year-old's First Symphony composed in what is now Ebury Street to the towering concert aria for Josepha Dushchek of Prague's Villa Bertramka, Ian Page's latest Mozart cornucopia took us on a rich and at times startling journey, a testament - as Page wrote eloquently yesterday in his article for The Arts Desk - to the abiding need for freedom of movement in a human being's developm

'A product not only of his era but also of his travels': Ian Page on Mozart's cosmopolitan education

'A PRODUCT NOT ONLY OF HIS ERA BUT ALSO OF HIS TRAVELS' Ian Page of The Mozartists on Mozart's cosmopolitan education

The Mozartists' main man on how an early life moving around Europe shaped a genius

When Mozart was an established composer living in Vienna during the final years of his short life, a young student seemingly came to him to seek his advice. The would-be young composer said that he was planning to write a symphony, and asked Mozart what advice he could give to him. Mozart replied that a symphony was a complex undertaking, and suggested that the youngster should first write a few keyboard sonatas and string quartets before undertaking an orchestral work. The student, however, was indignant.

Morison, Williams, RLPO, Davis, Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool review – a vision of near perfection

Chorus steals the show in a highly-charged performance of Duruflé's Requiem

It wasn’t really the orchestra’s night.  Nor the soloists'. Nor, even, the conductor's. The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Choir totally stole the show, well surpassing the incredibly high standards which they already regularly attain and performing not as a large symphonic chorus but as a something akin to one of the highly specialist choirs with which this country is blessed.

Le Nozze di Figaro, The Grange Festival review – the dark side of power

★★★★ LE NOZZE DE FIGARO, GRANGE FESTIVAL Wrenching redemption from destructive desire

A well-sung Figaro wrenches redemption from destructive desire

Productions of The Marriage of Figaro tend to press their thumbs on the comic or tragic side of the scales that hover so evenly throughout Mozart’s inexhaustible work. Director Martin Lloyd-Evans mostly favoured a darker interpretation at The Grange Festival, despite long stretches of niftily managed funny business.

Benedetti, SCO, Birmingham Town Hall review - a powerful musical alliance

★★ BENEDETTI, SCO, BIRMINGHAM Real teamwork with great leaders at the helm

Real teamwork with great leaders at the helm

Playing with such energy, such synergy and such general camaraderie at the start of a tour must surely pave the way for even greater things to come. The Scottish Chamber Orchestra with Nicola Benedetti kicked off their European tour at Birmingham Town Hall, ahead of performances in Denmark, Switzerland and Germany.