Every day the WildKat team scan the newspapers and blogs online to bring you a digested list of the day’s classical music.

The Guardian

Manchester and the Hallé orchestra

The Hallé orchestra has been the pride of the city – and the Manchester Guardian – for over 150 years.

The Independent

Xerxes, Britten Theatre, London The Fairy Queen, Britten Theatre, London Takács Quartet, Queen Elizabeth Hall, London.

English Touring Opera’s dazzling romance, set during the Second World War, is sexy and stylish.

The Times

The Queen of Spades at the Grand, Leeds

Halloween has come early to leds, and not just because the bakers are already arranging plastic spiders over their sticky buns…

The Times

Duke Bluebeard’s Castle at Symphony Hall, Birmingham

To stage or not to stage; that is the question. And each rendition of Bartók’s action-light opera Duke Bluebeard’s Castle offers its own answer..

The Times

The Barber of Seville at Theatre Royal, Glasgow

Rossini’s quick-fire comedy of frustrated lovers plotting to thwart an overly attentive guardian with the help of Seville’s polymath barber zings from the stage in this revival of Thomas Allen’s 2007 Scottish Opera production, directed, once more, by the moonlighting baritone.

Gramophone Online

Milos, Iestyn Davies, Christophe Rousset, and the Specialist Classical Chart

Welcome to the latest edition of the Gramophone Podcast, presented by Gramophone editor-in-chief James Jolly.