Siobhan Stagg steps in as Susanna and is the undoubted star of David McVicar’s Marriage of Figaro revival

United KingdomUnited Kingdom Mozart, Le nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro): Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra of Royal Opera / Julia Jones (conductor). Broadcast live (directed by Rhodri Huw) to Cineworld Basildon, Essex, from Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, 10.9.2024. (JPr)

David McVicar’s The Marriage of Figaro Act I © Clive Barda

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Riccardo Chailly’s Lucerne Mahler 7 is one of the very best

SwitzerlandSwitzerland Lucerne Summer Festival 2024 – Mahler’s Seventh Symphony: Lucerne Festival Orchestra / Riccardo Chailly (conductor). Broadcast live (directed by Ute Feudel) from the Konzertsaal des KKL Luzern, 16.8.2024 and available on ARTE Concert until 19.8.2025. (JPr)

Riccardo Chailly conducts the Lucerne Festival Orchestra

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A micro-managed Salzburg Mahler Ninth from Andris Nelsons and the VPO was fine, how could it not be?

AustriaAustria Salzburg Festival [5] – Mahler, Symphony No.9: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra / Andris Nelsons (conductor). Broadcast live (directed by Leopold Knötzl) from the Grosses Festspielhaus, Salzburg, 11.8.2024 and available on STAGE+. (JPr)

Andris Nelsons conducts the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in Salzburg

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What a delight it was to see and hear the talented young NYO musicians in stormy Wagner and epic Mahler

United KingdomUnited Kingdom PROM 30 – Wagner, Mazzoli, Howard, Mahler: Musicians from NYO Inspire, The National Youth Orchestra / Alexandre Bloch (conductor), Tess Jackson (conductor, Howard). Recorded (directed by Rhodri Huw) at the Royal Albert Hall, London, 10.8.2024 and available for a limited time on BBC iPlayer. (JPr)

Alexandre Bloch conducts the National Youth Orchestra © BBC/Chris Christodoulou

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The storytelling impresses in Amy Lane’s (mostly) straightforward new Longborough Die Walküre

United KingdomUnited Kingdom Longborough Festival Opera [3] – Wagner, Die Walküre: Soloists, Long borough Festival Orchestra / Anthony Negus (conductor). Recorded at Loughborough (directed by Matthew Dilley) on 26.6.2024 and available on OperaVision and YouTube until 9.2.2025. (JPr)

Paul Carey Jones (Wotan) and Madeleine Shaw (Fricka) © Matthew Williams-Ellis

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Thorleifur Örn Arnarsson’s new Bayreuth Tristan lacks coherence, dramatic cogency and better singing

GermanyGermany Bayreuth Festival 2024 [1] – Wagner, Tristan und Isolde: Soloists, Bayreuth Festival Chorus and Orchestra / Semyon Bychkov (conductor). Recorded live (directed by Michael Beyer) at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, 25.7.2024. (JPr)

Bayreuther Festspiele 2024 – Tristan und Isolde Act III © Enrico Nawrath

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