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Ian Bostridge in Britten’s Curlew River, streaming on the Barbican’s website.
Ian Bostridge in Britten’s Curlew River, streaming on the Barbican’s website. Photograph: Mark Allan/Barbican
Ian Bostridge in Britten’s Curlew River, streaming on the Barbican’s website. Photograph: Mark Allan/Barbican

Lockdown listening: classical music and opera to stream at home

This article is more than 3 years old

With concert halls and opera houses closed, organisations and musicians across the world are livestreaming concerts and opening up their digital archives

Please note: this page is no longer being updated. You can find viewing recommendations in our weekly House Music picks


Operas and concerts on demand

The Barbican’s 2013 multimedia staging of Britten’s Curlew River in St Giles’ Cripplegate is available to stream until the end of August. Directed by Netia Jones, with Ian Bostridge and Mark Stone among the cast, the production was critically acclaimed – “an involving, direct, unforgettable performance” wrote Erica Jeal.

Nederlandse Reisopera (Dutch National Touring Opera) Orfeo, 2020, available via operavision.eu Photograph: PR

Established opera streaming platform operavision.eu has a rich archive of productions from across Europe all available free. New productions are coming every three or four days (check here). You can also watch via their YouTube channel. July’s offerings include New Zealand Opera’s Tosca , Nederlandse Reisopera’s Orfeo (, I puritani by Oper Stuttgart (from 10 July) and, later in the month, Chaya Czernowin’s Infinite Now, The Barber of Seville, Avner Dorman’s Wahnfried, and Der fliegende Holländer. Check operavision for full details.

The Bayerisches Staatsorchester’s live-streamed Monday concert series has ended but you can catch up with them on demand for 30 days after broadcast.

The Royal Opera House live-streamed three concerts in June featuring singers including Louise Alder, Gerald Finley and Sarah Connolly. They’re available on demand on YouTube and Facebook, at a cost of £4.99 for a virtual ticket.

Radio 3/Wigmore Hall’s lunchtime concert series of live recitals featuring artists including Alina Ibragimova, Angela Hewitt, Stephen Hough and Iestyn Davies ran throughout June but all are still available to watch here.

Garsington Opera’s 2019 production of the Turn Of The Screw by Britten, streaming from 19 June. Photograph: Johan Persson

Garsington Opera has made available its 2019 production of Smetana’s Bartered Bride in a staging our critic declared “full of charm and wit”, as well as its Nozze di Figaro captured in 2017, and it’s critically acclaimed 2019 production of Britten’s Turn of the Screw.

Daniel Harding conducted the Swedish Radio Symphony in a staged performance of Don Giovanni on 13 June live from Stockholm’s Berwaldhallen. The new staging is directed by Andrew Staples, who also sings the role of Don Ottavio; Peter Mattei and Malin Byström are also among the singers. “In this staging we explore the darker side of a reliance on screens and remote images, allowing us to examine Don Giovanni’s need for intimacy and adapt that idea to our own current situation” says Staples. The opera is available until 12 July to watch on demand.

Taylor Stayton, Danielle de Niese, Alessandro Corbelli, Janis Kelly and Chrisophoros Stamboglis in Glyndebourne’s 2016 production of Il barbiere di Siviglia Photograph: Bill Cooper/BBC/Glyndebourne

Glyndebourne Open House, a virtual season, began on Sunday 24 May – the day the festival should have opened, and features a different opera streamed from the festival’s archive each week. New content is uploaded on a Sunday, Billy Budd runs from 12-19 July, followed by ll barbiere di Siviglia (the Barber of Seville. Check the website for further details.

You can watch archived concerts and clips from events at London’s Kings Place at kingsplace.co.uk/kplayer

La Bohème staged by Richard Jones at the Royal Opera House Photograph: Tristram Kenton/The Guardian

The Royal Opera House is streaming each week a new ballet or opera production on its Facebook and YouTube channels (then available on demand for several weeks). Richard Jones’s production of La Bohème with Nicole Car and Michael Fabiano is currently on offer; content changes regularly. More ROH content is available on Marquee TV (see below).

A new online film, The Goldberg Variations: Meditations On Solitude features poetry read by Sir Simon Russell Beale, Bach’s Goldberg Variations performed in an arrangement for strings by the Ysaÿe Trio, and photographic artworks by Kristina Feldhammer. It’s ticketed, but on a “pay what you want” basis; 20% of proceeds will be donated to the Royal Society of Musicians.

Renaud Capuçon and friends perform Strauss’s Métamorphoses
Renaud Capuçon and friends perform Strauss’s Métamorphoses Photograph: arte.tv

Live music returned to Paris’s Philharmonie in the last week of May. Both concerts were live-streamed and are available on demand: a Wagner/Strauss programme, and violinist Renaud Capuçon leading a performance of Strauss’s Metamorphosen.

Grange festival’s acclaimed (“hugely enjoyable” wrote Tim Ashley) production of Handel’s Agrippina from 2018 is now streaming, last year’s staging of Marriage of Figaro will be available in mid July.

The Philharmonia’s Esa-Pekka Salonen Photograph: Nicolas Brodard | 2015

The Philharmonia Orchestra have uploaded a 2017 Royal Festival Hall concert in which Esa-Pekka Salonen conducted Mahler’s third symphony. Also available is an historic June 1970 performance, under Otto Klemperer, of Beethoven’s choral symphony with soloists including mezzo Janet Baker.

Symphonie Fantastique performed by the Aurora Orchestra at the proms 2019 Photograph: Mark Allan

Watch one of the highlights of last year’s Proms season – the Aurora orchestra’s imaginative and thrilling staging of Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique. The performance opened the orchestra’s new Aurora Play series that will see new content each week alongside introductions by conductor Nicholas Collon and other special guests.

France TV, the French public national television broadcaster, has a classical music and opera channel with some great content including (at time of writing) Purcell’s Indian Queen, staged by Opera Lille with Concert d’Astrée and Emmanuelle Haïm, and a Robert Wilson staging of Turandot.

European cultural streaming platform Arte (which also hosts the fabulous Hope@Home – see below) has regularly changing content from opera houses across Europe. Current highlights include Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice at the Opéra Comique in Paris, Turandot in a production for Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu, and Piazolla’s tango opera Maria de Buenos Aires, a 2019 production from Opéra National du Rhin.

Stuart MacRae’s Anthropocene, staged by Scottish Opera 2019. Photograph: James Glossop

The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic is adding videos of past concerts to Facebook twice a week. Some have a specially-recorded introduction by chief conductor Vasily Petrenko. There’s also, in the Live From Liverpool Philharmonic Hall series, previously unreleased audio recordings of past concerts.

Scottish Opera’s world premiere production of Anthropocene by Stuart MacRae and Louise Welsh is available until mid-July via OperaVision. Read our four-star review here.

Wagner’s Parsifal, in a staging for Opera Ballet Vlaanderen Photograph: Aanemie Augustijns

Ghent’s Opera Ballet Vlaanderen has productions including 2013’s Parsifal, winner of International Opera’s Best Wagner Anniversary Production (and which featured 250 litres of fake blood). And if you want to venture a little off opera’s beaten track, there’s Rimsky-Korsakov’s Sadko and Halévy’s La Juive. Their content is also available via OperaVision.

The New York Philharmonic is broadcasting past concerts every Thursday at 7.30pm EST (12.30am BST) on Facebook and YouTube. Several feature specially recorded introductions by Alec Baldwin, who chats to the soloists (including Renée Fleming and Yo Yo Ma, all in their respective homes of course). Full details at NY Phil Plays On, where there’s lots of content from its April Mahler festival that celebrated its former music director.

The iconic CD cover images for the Bach Cantatas series by the Monteverdi choir and English Baroque Soloists

The Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists are celebrating the 20th anniversary of their acclaimed Bach Cantata Pilgrimage with a new cantata every Sunday on their YouTube channel, selected to match the liturgical calendar. There’s plenty of other music to explore on the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra’s YouTube channel, including Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, recorded in 2017 in Venice’s historic Teatro La Fenice, and his Vespro della Beata Vergine recorded in the Palace of Versailles.

New music specialists the London Sinfonietta’s digital channel features interviews with many of its commissioned composers, performance guides and performances of short works by composers including Steve Reich and Harrison Birtwistle, as well as Tansy Davies and Nick Drake’s recent chamber opera Cave.

There’s a new concert each night – the “concert du jour” (available for 24 hours only) – plus a great selection of on-demand content from the Philharmonie de Paris, including Samstag, from Stockhausen’s Licht opera cycle, and Hans Krása’s children’s opera, Brundibar – plus jazz, chamber music and masterclasses. A well-designed search facility helps you navigate the wide variety of music.

Stockhausen’s Samstag aus Licht staged by le Balcon, in June 2019 at the Philharmonie de Paris

Each evening at 7.30pm EST, New York’s Metropolitan Opera is also streaming a past production from its award-winning Live in HD series. Each opera is available to stream, free, for 23 hours. More details on Twitter @MetOpera or at metopera.org/.

Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw Orchestra has a huge array of past concerts to watch, organised by composer (including a Beethoven and a Mahler symphony cycle), by conductor (well represented are former chief conductors Bernard Haitink, Mariss Jansonsand, Daniele Gatti, Andris Nelsons and Ivan Fischer ( women on the Concertgebouw podium are conspicuous by their absence), and soloists. There are also conducting masterclasses, portraits of the orchestra’s members, and documentaries – enough to keep you engaged for weeks to come.

Eva-Maria Westbroek (centre) in Dutch National Opera’s 2006 production of Lady Macbeth of Mtsenk Photograph: PR

The Dutch National Opera is showing a different production each week on its YouTube channel. Currently available (until mid Aug) is a 2006 production of Lady Macbeth of Mtsenk starring Eva-Maria Westbroek.

The Melbourne Recital Centre has a range of performances from the past few years of predominantly Australian performers and repertoire in an admirably easy-to-navigate site.

Brussels’s famous opera house La Monnaie has curated a “virtual season” with seven recent productions (including Tristan und Isolde, Aida, Dusapin’s specially-commissioned Macbeth Underworld, and a hallucinogenic La Gioconda). Not all the surtitles are in English – try this database of librettos to gen up). You can also access the same content on its YouTube channel.

The EU-wide Early Music Day was, of course, online-only this year but featured livestreamed concerts that can all be watched on demand alongside plenty of previous concerts and shorter performances. Don’t miss Steven Devine’s performance of Bach’s 48 Preludes and Fugues on the harpsichord at the York Early Music Centre, or if you need a lift, Bach’s Toccata and Fugue (other Baroque composers are available) arranged for four very nimble-fingered recorder players.

The Gstaad Menuhin Festival and Academy has an online space where you can watch performances, backstage interviews and masterclasses from previous festivals. Registration is required, but this will also enable the non-German speakers among us to access the English-language version of the written content.

Berlin’s Pierre Boulez Saal’s Intermission series features a regularly updated selection of past concerts each available for two or three days.

Deutsche Oper Berlin has a regularly changing programme of past productions available on demand. Check for details.

The audio stream of Missy Mizzoli’s Breaking the Waves (which was at the Edinburgh international festival last year) captured in Opera Philadelphia’s premiere production in September 2016 is available via a Soundcloud embed.

Adam’s Passion by Arvo Pärt, available to watch via Marquee.TV Photograph: http://www.robertwilson.com/

Arts and culture streaming platform Marquee TV is offering a 14-day trial period, giving free access to a huge range of theatre and ballet productions and a large and varied collection of operas that includes most of Glyndebourne festival’s recent productions (from Brett Dean’s Hamlet to Jonathan Kent’s glorious staging of Purcell’s Fairy Queen, bonking bunnies and all). Other must-sees include Arvo Pärt’s Adam’s Passion, and Opera North’s award-winning production of Jonathan Dove’s children’s opera, Pinocchio, and one of the greatest opera events of the last decade: Aldeburgh festival’s outdoor production of Peter Grimes, staged on the beach where Britten’s opera is set. Registration (and thus credit card details) are required to activate the free trial period, but you can cancel anytime.

The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra has a wide array of past concerts on demand and will be adding more regularly. Of many wonderful concerts, try Daniel Barenboim’s joyful performance of Beethoven’s 5th Piano Concerto under the baton of Mariss Jansons (from November 2017), or watch its celebrated and much missed chief conductor Jansons conducting Bruckner’s Mass No 3 F minor.

Opera North’s acclaimed semi-staged Ring cycle from 2016 is available on its website. The 2017 production of Trouble in Tahiti is available via Now TV and Sky on-demand services, and, on operavision (more of which below) you can watch its production of Britten’s Turn of the Screw, recorded live on 21 February 2020.

Opera North’s semi-staged Ring Cycle with Andrew Foster-Williams (Gunther); Mats Almgren (Hagen) and Mati Turi (Siegfried) Photograph: Clive Barda/CLIVE BARDA/ ArenaPAL

The Teatro Massimo in Palermo has several concerts and recent opera productions recorded live available to watch on demand. At the time of writing the operas include Madame Butterfly, La Traviata, a Barber of Seville (check out the witty animated opening) and a Cav and a Pag. And there’s more to come, we are promised.

The Teatro Regio’s YouTube channel, Opera on the Sofa, is making available past productions from the historic Turin theatre. The opening offering is Nabucco, staged last February, and there’s also Madama Butterfly, La Sonnambula and a Carmen.

Vienna State Opera is making a different opera available to watch each day via its streaming platform. There’s also a large archive of previous ballet and opera productions that can be watched with a subscription.

Many UK organisations live stream concerts and make them available via YouTube or other channels. Check out Wigmore Hall, which has a huge selection of its past chamber music concerts free to watch, or try the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra’s YouTube channel or Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

Part of its new portal, Lincoln Center at Home, the New York arts venue is posting on Facebook past concerts from its Live from the Lincoln series. Highlights include Jaap van Zweden conducting the New York Philharmonic in Mahler 5 or Joshua Bell’s Seasons of Cuba. Check for regular additions.

The Academy of Ancient Music’s streaming Sunday sees a new concert uploaded each week that you can watch on its YouTube channel. Scotland’s Dunedin Consort has a recent all-Bach programme on Facebook, recorded at Washington DC’s Library of Congress.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra launched LPonline with a remarkable performance of a movement of Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 10 led by Anne-Sophie Mutter from Munich, with her fellow musicians in Tonbridge, Pimlico and Barnes. More content includes listening guides, Spotify playlists and even a chance for the violas to shine.

The London Mozart Players’ “At Home” series features a daily changing selection of imaginatively-curated streams, workshops, family-friendly broadcasts and even live recitals. Check its YouTube channel or its website.

The London Symphony Orchestra is streaming full-length concerts on Sunday and Thursday evenings on its YouTube channel. Each performance will be available up to midnight (UK time) on the day of broadcast, and thereafter on streaming site Stingray Classica (currently offering a free 30-day trial).

Chineke! Orchestra’s concert (Coleridge-Taylor, Bruch and Beethoven) from Sunday 23 February 2020 has just been made available on YouTube. It was filmed at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, conducted by Fawzi Haimor, and featured Tai Murray as soloist.

The Royal Scottish National Orchestra’s Sunday Sounds series features a different RSNO musician performing from their home live at 3pm. Watch on its website, on Facebook or YouTube. There’s also new concerts from previous years made available to watch each Friday online or on the Glasgow orchestra’s YouTube channel.

Outstanding young artists are livestreaming concerts from their homes on impressive new platform, Recital Stream. Concerts are then available on demand for a fortnight. It’s free, but donations – that go direct to the performers – are welcome.

What’s lockdown life like in Nottingham with Britain’s most musical family (or at least surely a prime contender for the title)? Have a peek inside the Kanneh-Mason household with regular Facebook livestreams featuring short performances from cellist Sheku and his siblings. Don’t miss their scratch chamber orchestra arrangement of the first movement of Beethoven’s third concerto – a work that Isata had been due to perform at the Royal Albert Hall on 18 April.

The Kanneh-Masons performing at the 2019 Royal Variety Show Photograph: Matt Frost/ITV/Rex/Shutterstock

Critics’ picks – each week in our series ‘House Music’ a different writer shares their watching and listening highlights

27 July Tim Ashley’s picks
20 July Rian Evans’s picks
13 July: Andrew Clements’s picks
6 July: Flora Willson’s picks
29 June: Tim Ashley’s picks
22 June Rian Evans’ lockdown listening
15 June Andrew Clements on his lockdown listening
8 June Flora Willson’s lockdown listening picks
1 June Tim Ashley’s lockdown listening picks

Earlier picks (daily highlights that ran from mid March to mid May)
Week eight
: lushness from Renée Fleming and a torrid thriller from Korngold
Week seven: slo-mo Pärt, a glorious Figaro and Beethoven’s tenth (yes really)
Week six: dancing horses and bonking bunnies
Week five: Stockhausen’s devilish Saturday and a Beethoven marathon
Week four: Klemperer’s Choral symphony, a world premiere and splendidly sinister Britten
Week three: a charismatic Don Giovanni and ear-bending new sounds from Australia
Week two: Argerich, Aida and Hans Abrahamsen
Week one: Igor Levit, Il Trovatore and the Berlin Phil

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