Commissioned to celebrate the coronation of the present Queen, Gloriana was a rare flop for Benjamin Britten. Its story of silly, handsome Robert Devereux’s ascent and descent in the affections of  the ageing Elizabeth I is doubly hampered by the Tudorbethan argot of William Plomer’s libretto and the composer’s garish orchestration of John Dowland’s lute songs. For every moment of beauty and brilliance, there is another of thumb-twiddling banality.

A poem which famously inspired Nelson Mandela during his decades of incarceration has been set to music by a rising opera star.

Comedy: I have been watching the HBO series Girls. It's my latest box set. It's extraordinary. Lena Dunham not only writes and stars in it but also directs it. Which is incredibly brave of her, but makes complete sense as it's totally her vision. And it's fantastic that a network has let her creativity flourish without interference. We need more of that in TV.

The umbrella title for English National Ballet’s latest triple bill suggests decadent abandon.

Tributes have poured in for Sir Colin Davis, the longest-serving principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO), who has died at the age of 85.

His achievement was all the more remarkable for the fact that he was born with cerebral palsy

Her portrayal of Tosca in the 1970s was described by one critic as 'valiant and touching'

Those who don’t like Andras Schiff’s Beethoven say he plays like a tyrant: for those who do, his way with the great sonata-cycle has something approaching the authority of an oracle. But even oracles can get things wrong, and so did Schiff’s account of the Rondo of Opus 31 No 1: Beethoven may have written in some quirkiness, but not to the mannered degree we got it here. Sometimes Schiff gets carried away by his own doctrinaire convictions.

Embarking on its spring tour with a new production of Cosi fan tutte, ETO offers its audiences a typically provocative essay by the late Edward Said, as a way of intellectually limbering up.

Hollywood A-listers jet in to add sparkle to Vienna's annual event with an image problem

Which is Mozart’s last opera? Most people would say The Magic Flute, and it was indeed the last to be staged in his lifetime.

Royal Festival Hall, London

Yoshikazu Jumei rarely gives piano recitals in the West, and the Wigmore was packed with a largely Japanese audience, due no doubt to the fact that the proceeds would go towards helping the victims of the 2011 tsunami.  

Since the Polish-Canadian pianist Janina Fialkowska returned to the stage three years ago after a long time out, her story has earned her legendary status.