Verdi’s dramatic operas are among the most popular, but grief nearly halted his output and the Italian composer and countryman only returned to creativity after finding solace on his farm, reports Henrietta Bredin

Vincenzo Bellini I PuritaniMetropolitan Opera, New York Fabrizio Della Seta BelliniTranslated by James Chater448pp. Oxford University Press. £29.99. As rehearsals began in Paris in 1834 for Vincenzo B

Catapult Opera; Talea Ensemble/Neal Goren Pentatone PTC5187492 99:63 mins The history of Nadia Boulanger’s only full-length opera is a tortuous as Gabriele D’Annunzio’s libretto, in which Alexandre an

Andrey Gugnin (piano) Hyperion CDA684712 83 mins This album of Russian ballet transcriptions sparkles like a glass bauble hanging amidst the fairy lights. Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky wrote so colourful

Grace Williams loved the sea. In later life, BBC television cameras captured one of her daily morning walks in Barry on the coast of Glamorgan – she strides purposefully along, looking out over the Br

Works by Bach, Vivaldi and Marcello Amandine Beyer (violin); Gli Incogniti Harmonia Mundi HMM90276970 134 mins The communicative warmth and infectious vitality of Amandine Beyer’s performances will ha