The Importance of Being Earnest review – gloriously madcap opera achieves new heights of delirium
Gerald Barry’s take on Wilde’s comedy is even wittier and zanier in Jack Furness’s hyperactive staging – complete with a grand piano on stilts, a herd of cows and a kangaroo that meets a grisly end
Tom Service on music
Imagine a world without Wagner … it’s not easy, but let’s try
Tom Service
As the Bayreuth festival turns 150, we look at the composer’s huge and enduring influence, and wonder what might have happened to classical music in his absence?
Brian Large obituary
Tristan und Isolde review – Wagner in concert performance sees Pappano and the LSO at their finest
I Puritani review – Oropesa dazzles in Jones’s engaging Bellini staging
June 2026
From a mad hatter’s tea-party to Tosca and young talent: Opera Holland Park at 30 – in pictures
The show must go on: musical theatre cancellations lead to industry calls for urgent government help
Billy Budd review – Clayton’s Vere is the devastating heart of vivid staging
Meriel Dickinson obituary
Anna Netrebko review – high camp and bel canto brilliance as star soprano shows she’s still the real deal
Turandot review – Opera Holland Park celebrate 30 years with Puccini’s grand guignol
Giulio Cesare review – nightmarish take on Handel has snakes, sadism and a mummy
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland review – Lewis Carroll’s familiar characters move in from the garden
Das Rheingold review – a sure-footed feast as Alberich descends into madness
Il Ritorno d’Ulisse review – a sensuous slice of opulence and luxury
Lost for years, the music of The Tiger Who Came to Tea author’s mother is heard again
