To some, Ferdinand Ries is best known as a minor planet spinning around the sun that was Beethoven.

This rich 1999 experimental classic from China is stylish, hip, humorous, streetwise - and hopelessly romantic: under youth's swagger are youth's desperate illusions.

We had come to the Civic Theatre to hear Haydn and Mozart from Kronos Quartet; in partnership with pipa virtuoso Wu Man, the Americans were offering a rare mingling of music and magic.

The cover of Max Emanuel Cencic's Venezia says it all. The Croatian countertenor is all elegance, in dinner jacket and cravat, in front of an ornate wallpaper that might adorn the walls of a Venetian palazzo.

Pacific Les Mis musical hugely leavened by romance, humour and funky 70s style

A one-person show imported from the Melbourne Fringe Festival offers a deliciously weird piece of surrealistic satire served up under the watchful gaze of a black raven.

He's cheeky, that Dizzee Rascal, and not afraid to indulge in a bit of harmless self-promotion.

King Lear is a fine choice for a celebration of Summer Shakespeare's 50th year, and a production featuring some of our most distinguished practitioners delivers a stirring tribute.

Filmed over four years in 25 countries, Samsara is pure cinema of the highest order.

Nominated for five Oscars and winner of Best Foreign Film, this French drama is a thing of perfection