The best dance, theatre and opera of spring

Our critics select the shows to look out for in 2009, from Calendar Girls to English Touring Opera's The Magic Flute

Turandot in Covent Garden

Kudos to Connell for pulling off something of a triumph in a part too often consigned to a singer who can scream the music

Hansel und Gretel

The conductor Robin Ticciati's interpretation of Humperdinck's opera is as rich and fruity as a good stollen

Hänsel und Gretel - the Sunday Times review

The Royal Opera’s production sounds magic; shame about the staging

The opera greats taking minor parts

Never mind the starring roles, this Christmas revered opera singers are taking minor parts. Neil Fisher finds out why

La Scala's controversial opening

The annual gala at La Scala was blighted when it opened this week by protest and controversy. Richard Owen reports

Phantoms of the opera break silence

Long-dead stars crackle in Paris Opera from 24 pristine gramophone records that were locked away for posterity

Riders to the Sea - the Sunday Times review

ENO’s Riders to the Sea, directed by Fiona Shaw, is an intense and mov ing portrait of loss

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Les Contes d'Hoffmann - the Sunday Times review

We hail a young conductor’s Shostakovich masterclass in Poole and Villazon’s stirring return in Les Contes d’Hoffmann

Carmina Burana

We could almost smell the flesh roasting in John Graham-Hall's visibly agonised song of the dying swan on the spit

Lesley Garrett's musical merry-go-round

The Diva from Doncaster loves appearing in a West End musical every bit as much as singing opera. It's the mix that counts

Diana Damrau: a killer soprano

A dazzling blonde, charismatic and a brilliant actresss, at 37 Diana Damrau is at the peak of her powers, says Hugh Canning

Domingo gives Papal poems a voice

New album Amore Infinito (Infinite Love) featuring songs based on poems by the late Pope John Paul II goes on sale in Italy

Riders to the Sea

The success of this performancewas a tribute to the professionalism of the cast, who must have been numbed by the death of Richard Hickox

Les Contes d’Hoffmann

Only in the concluding minutes, with a lurch into 'proper' opera, did Rolando Villazón's walnut tone pick up and radiate

Skellig

The music captures the tale's eerie essence, the city as a dark place where supernatural man-beasts lie in uneasy hibernation

'We are in shock over Richard Hickox'

Directing her first opera, Williams's Riders to the Sea at ENO, Fiona Shaw is devastated by the death of its conductor

Il segreto di Susanna/un mari à la porte

Neither of these bitesize comic works is a masterpiece&#46, but they are united through the theme of suspected infidelity

Johnson urges opera and ballet to target young

Mayor of London criticises 'patronising' presumption that young people want hip-hop rather than experience older art forms

Mozartfest: All the right credentials

Mozart’s connections with Bath are tenuous, but for the past 18 years there has been a Mozartfest in this Georgian city