David McVicar's production is bold, brash and irresistibly seductive, as befits one of French Baroque music's most ravishing scores, here receiving its first professional British staging.

One of the more interesting of the tide of Britten centenary tributes, The Canticles features the five vocal settings composed at various points between 1947 and 1974, in which the ostensible religious themes disguise more secular interests – the barely veiled homoeroticism of Francis Quarles' 17th-century adoration of Christ in "Canticle I", the allegorical linking of Blitz and Crucifixion in the Edith Sitwell poem used for "Canticle III" etc.

Everyone loves Carmen, but no one ever quite brings it off because its delicate balance between public and private, large-scale action and intimate drama, is so tricky.

Little by little Maxim Vengerov is easing himself back into the mainstream, after injury and burn-out. His last Barbican foray - with a concerto - was marred by a loss of nerve at critical moments: this time he was going for broke with a chamber recital where, if anything went wrong, he would have nowhere to hide.

David McVicar’s production of Charpentier’s Médée – or Medea, in Christopher Cowell‘s felicitously idiomatic translation – is the most brilliant show to have graced the Coliseum in years. It’s by turns bold and brash – how could it not be, given the tabloid luridness of its subject matter? – and it’s also irresistibly seductive, as befits one of French Baroque music’s most ravishing scores which, after three centuries, is getting its first professional British staging.

Blindness has never stopped the Italian tenor doing what he wants. And, he tells Adam Sherwin, his critics don’t know what they’re talking about

In their beautifully balanced survey of Beethoven's Sonatas for Violin and Piano, Kavakos and Pace allow us to eavesdrop on 10 intimate conversations between musical equals.

Welsh National Opera's bloody spree is packed with visual shocks but the finest artistry is in the pit

The composer drew on experiences in the First World War

Khatia Buniatishvili and Alice Sara Ott have more than their youth and keyboard skill in common: they both enjoy the dubious privilege of being their record companies’ pianistic pin-ups.

Century-old Rite of Spring couldn't be more popular – now

Alban Berg’s Lulu is a great opera, and greatly problematic.

ENO won’t be able to cash in on its new Verdi, which chooses polemic over pure passion

Two highly sympathetic soprano soloists (Judith van Wanroij and Machteld Baumans) and the warm chorales and clean fugal entries of the Consensus Vocalis choir make a persuasive argument for Jan Willem de Vriend's recording of "Lobgesang".

Take hair from the belly of a yak, wrap it in tissue, wind it around wooden dowelling, secure it with cotton and string, and boil for two to three hours. Before you reach for Heston's cookbook, this is not the latest culinary fad but English National Opera's recipe for curling facial hair. "It smells like wet dog," says Vanessa Davis, wigs and make-up supervisor at ENO."Whenever we do it, everyone complains."