Moses und Aron, Komische Oper Berlin, OperaVision review – complex and powerful memorial

★★★★ MOSES UND ARON, KOMISCHE OPER BERLIN A fitting Holocaust epitaph

Schoenberg’s opera of unanswerable questions proves a fitting Holocaust epitaph

Barrie Kosky’s production of Moses und Aron was staged at the Komische Oper Berlin in 2015 to mark the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Schoenberg’s opera is philosophical and open to a variety of interpretations.

A House Through Time, Series Finale, BBC Two review - timely series reaches uneven conclusion

★★★ A HOUSE THROUGH TIME, SERIES FINALE, BBC TWO Timely series reaches uneven conclusion

The best came first in David Olusoga's Bristolian history

Setting his third series of A House Through Time in Bristol (BBC One) was a stroke of inspired prescience for historian and presenter David Olusoga.

Blu-ray: The Apu Trilogy

★★★★★ BLU-RAY: THE APU TRILOGY An enduring Bengali epic

An enduring Bengali epic from India's greatest filmmaker

Over the years, the legend of The Apu Trilogy has been much-repeated. Now widely considered India’s greatest filmmaker, Satyajit Ray was little more than a small-time commercial artist when, failing to find a sponsor for his script, he assembled what few funds he could in order to begin filming.

Elektra/Der Rosenkavalier, Nightly Met Opera Streams review - searing hits and indulgent misses

ELEKTRA / DER ROSENKAVALIER, MET OPERA ONLINE Searing hits and indulgent misses

Challenging direction, great conducting and luxury casting in New York Strauss

A brutal Greek tragedy and a rococo Viennese comedy, both filtered through the eyes and ears of 20th century genius: what a feast on consecutive nights from the Metropolitan Opera's recent archive. There's been real thought behind the wealth of programming in the company's attempts to keep the world happy for free during lockdown, including a whole Wagner week.

Director Marjane Satrapi: ‘The real question is do you like everyone? No? So, why should everyone like you?’

FILMMAKER MARJANE SATRAPI ‘The real question is do you like everyone? No? So, why should everyone like you?’

The forthright 'Radioactive' filmmaker on intelligence, ignorance and Marie Curie

Marjane Satrapi, the Iranian-born French filmmaker, has a reputation that precedes her. Her upbringing was the subject of the acclaimed films Persepolis (2007) and Chicken With Plums (2011). Persepolis won the Cannes Jury Prize, two César awards and was nominated for an Oscar. Satrapi adapted and co-directed both films. She also wrote and illustrated the comic books on which they were based.

Frang, CBSO, Yamada, Symphony Hall Birmingham review - the tingle factor

★★★★ FRANG, CBSO, YAMADA, SYMPHONY HALL BIRMINGHAM The tingle factor

Thoughtful Shostakovich from Vilde Frang, non-stop thrills in Respighi's Roman triptych

There’s a particular moment of a particular recording – I suppose every slightly over-obsessive record collector has one – that I just keep listening to over and over again. It’s in Fritz Reiner’s 1960 Chicago Symphony recording of Respighi’s The Fountains of Rome, and it comes right after the first flood of the Triton Fountain starts to recede. The violins glide up into their cadence; just two notes, but the gesture is so graceful, so effortless, and so gloriously, naturally stylish that it gives me shivers every time.

Francesca Wade: Square Haunting - Bloomsbury retold

The stories of five women in Bloomsbury recover lost layers in London's palimpsest

These days, Bloomsbury rests in a state of elegant somnolence. The ghosts of Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell linger on in the shabby gentility of Russell Square and its environs, the bookish institutions that are the bones of the place conferring tranquility, despite the many students and tourists.