Guardian Music — These operas span four centuries and give a flavour of repertoire's huge range and variety• Listen to a Guardian playlist of these operas1 L'Orfeo Claudio Monteverdi Mantua, Italy, c1607With a mythological musician as hero, L'Orfeo ranks as the f... more info

Guardian Music — Opera is as vital today as it was in 16th-century Florence. We chart the rise and reinvention of the genre over four centuries16th-century 0riginsThough various ways of bringing music and drama together had been explored over centuries – such as li... more info

Guardian Music — We celebrate the directors who have reinvigorated the genre• Stravinsky: The Rake's Progress (John Cox, Glyndebourne, 1975)With designs by David Hockney parodying the William Hogarth engravings that inspired the opera, Cox's production has become... more info

Guardian Music — Love musicals, but hate opera? We argue that both can be 'the perfect amalgam of text, music and drama'1 Jay Rayner: Opera is for toffs Consider the antecedents of musicals and opera. Musicals were born out of the working-class traditions of music ha... more info

Guardian Music — Brahms's music still thrives thanks to his drive to express the most radical ideas within strictly established disciplinesAimez-vous Brahms? Answers to Françoise Sagan's question are more equivocal than they once were. Brahms's music is still greatl... more info

Guardian Music — Allegrini/Orchestra Mozart/Abbado(Deutsche Grammophone)Whatever sparked Claudio Abbado's recent enthusiasm for baroque and classical repertoire that earlier in his career he rarely conducted and certainly didn't record, it continues to generate a re... more info

The Telegraph — Alessio Allegrini (horn), Orchestra Mozart, cond Claudio Abbado. more info

Guardian Music — Innovative stage designer with a love of baroque opera and a painterly sensibilityIn 1972 Thomas Allen was a young baritone preparing to sing Benjamin Britten's Billy Budd for Welsh National Opera. Although nervous, he was reassured by the atmosph... more info

Guardian Music — Usher Hall, EdinburghMartha Argerich and Nelson Goerner's duet concert was, unsurprisingly, one of the hot tickets for this year's festival. To argue that it represented a departure for Argerich would be foolish, but given her tendency to limit herse... more info

Guardian Music — Collegium Vocale Gent/Herreweghe(Outhere)So fast has the early music movement grown that it is difficult to believe that it's 30 years since Philippe Herreweghe's fresh-voiced choir first recorded the Bach motets. They now revisit these peerless mast... more info