Rebecca Franks

Birmingham Opera Company promised to ‘reconnect me with reality’ with six new 15-minute works. It also involved a coconut shy and an ode to a legendary nightclub

Elena Langer’s Four Sisters is the stand-out in this triple bill of operas by women, performed in the Linbury at the Royal Opera House

English National Opera’s first new production created in Manchester is a traumatic modern fable with a dizzyingly full-on staging by Kip Williams

Marking 250 years of the United States, the Barbican hosted the premiere of this 90-minute exploration of the horrors meted out against the country’s indigenous people

The Radio 3 presenter is a "sucker for a quiz" – when he's allowed to watch them!

In the week the world acquired its first trillionaire, what better opera to see than Rheingold, in which a gold ring has the power to give its owner the world’s wealth

In Aurora’s ‘classical gig’ at St George’s Hall in Bristol the crowd politely walked around the orchestra as it played bitesize chunks of the Jupiter Symphony

While some argue the Russian singer should be boycotted, in this recital she banished politics and took us to a place of diamond bling and fabulous gowns

The Tehran-born harpsichord star talks about his Bach marathon, his split identity and why the Iranian diaspora has failed to come together against the regime

The best and worst of the annual concert season at the Royal Albert Hall and beyond — and how to hear and watch them on catch-up