The first performance of Puccini’s Turandot – archive, 1926

On 25 April 1926, the premiere of Puccini’s posthumous opera was presented at Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, almost a year and a half after his death

BBC Proms to celebrate Miles Davis’s centenary and 250 years of US independence

This year’s programme to feature ambitious pieces with lots of notes – and that’s just prog night

Magnificent minimalism, sizzling Strauss, bracing Berlioz: Guardian critics’ top picks for Proms 2026

As details of this year’s concert series are unveiled, here are some of the most exciting lineups – from a Bach recital by Notre-Dame’s organist to Thomas Adès conducting the National Youth Orchestra in his own ballet

Charlize Theron joins chorus of disapproval over Timothée Chalamet’s ballet comments

The former ballet dancer said Chalamet’s comments were ‘reckless’ in an interview with the New York Times in which she also discussed her violent childhood

LSO/ Pappano: The Dream of Gerontius review – full-throttle rendering of Elgar’s operatic finest

Antonio Pappano’s dramatically charged interpretation of this religious oratorio landed powerfully with a hair raising performance from David Butt Philip as the titular soul

‘They said: You’re out of your mind’: Luca Guadagnino on directing controversial opera The Death of Klinghoffer

The opera – about the hijacking of a cruise by the PLF who murder a Jewish American wheelchair user – has been subject to protests and accused of romanticising terrorism. Why was the film-maker so desperate to stage it?

LSO/Frang/Pappano review – tragic and thrilling Shostakovich and silky and spiky Korngold

Vilde Frang revealed the expressionistic bones of Korngold’s Violin Concerto in her performance of this 1945 work, part of a concert that included Imogen Holst’s Persephone and a drama-filled reading of Shostakovich’s 5th

Sean Shibe: Vesper album review – ever-imaginative guitar virtuoso brings mind-expanding flights of fancy

This thoughtfully curated programme of work by three British composers explores the guitar’s expressive potential, and new arrangements of Harrison Birtwistle’s piano originals are a revelation

The Flying Dutchman review – delusion, torment and menace in detailed and finely sung Wagner

Jack Furness’s unconventional staging for Welsh National Opera sees the orchestra play up a storm under Tomáš Hanus in Wagner’s legend of the man condemned to sail the oceans for eternity

Samuel Hasselhorn: Schubert Hoffnung review – timbral and emotional flexibility is in ample supply

The German baritone’s all-Schubert disc with pianist Ammiel Bushakevitz is full of communicative diction and poetic phrasing

Brodsky Quartet / William Barton review – two hemispheres meet in winning didgeridoo collaboration

An unlikely alliance cut a swathe through folk songs, Janáček and music from Australia and New Zealand in an eclectic and beautiful evening

From strads to shreds and Vivaldi to Van Halen, classical and heavy metal are a natural pairing

With ear-splitting excess, flamboyant virtuosity and a talent for transgression, where classical music has led, metal has followed. Let’s hope the Philharmonia’s Metal Orchestrated concert turns it up to 11

Leeds Song festival review – from haiku to hauntings in evening that thinks outside the box

Roderick Williams could breathe life into a telephone directory, but found much better material in his recital with Iain Burnside. A later concert featured atmospheric soundscapes from local composer Martin Iddon

‘She wanted to disappear in silence’: the magical life and mysterious death of married musician duo Irena and Vojtěch Havlovi

Blending minimalism, ambient and folk music in the former Czechoslovakia, the couple made pilgrim-like tours around Europe, beguiling everyone they met. Fans including the National’s Bryce Dessner explain their allure

‘We want people on the edge of their seats’: Royal Opera boss Oliver Mears on the new season – and the controversies of the last

Wagnerites rejoice! Parsifal and the climax of Barrie Kosky’s acclaimed Ring cycle are in the pipeline. The director of opera talks about scoring a bullseye, the storms that rocked last season – and how to avoid sending audiences to sleep