Easter means chocolate, rite? Not at the Royal Opera House, who are serving up a scary brew of gypsy curses and unpredictable tenors as the ancient Il trovatore is resuscitated from 13 April with Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Sondra Radvanovsky, Mikhail Petrenko and Roberto Alagna.
More Bob on 15 April: 'In Conversation with Roberto Alagna' will reveal what it's like being booed off at La Scala, how to marry a vampire and the exact location of the Sonny Crockett outlet store.
Another venerable Moshinsky production opens on 27 April, the dusty dungeons'n'dragons Lohengrin, in possibly its last ever run. Simon O'Neill shares the title role with Johan Botha, Edith Haller makes her ROH debut, and Semyon Bychkov conducts.
ENO decamp to the Young Vic this month for Katie Mitchell's multimedia assault on Purcell, After Dido:
"After Dido is an original film and theatre performance directed by Katie Mitchell and the team who made the National Theatre's Waves and some trace of her. It tells the story of four Londoners on the night of a live anniversary radio broadcast of Purcell's opera Dido and Aeneas, and is created by an ensemble of singers and actors using cameras, lights and sound effects, whilst the full score of the opera is performed live."
I like that last bit. Comforting.
April is Passion-packed - at the Barbican Riccardo Chailly and the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig present the St Matthew Passion on 5 April with Thomas Quasthoff and Hanno Mϋller-Brachmann, as do the Orchestra of the Age Of Enlightenment at the Royal Festival Hall on 9 April with Mark Padmore and Roderick Williams.
The Barbican's mini Lang Lang fest begins on 20 April when he joins the LSO for the evening. A recital and various smaller-scale events at St Lukes follow.
Meanwhile, the Royal Festival Hall hosts Gustavo Dudamel and the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra on 13 April, with a second performance on 18 April. In between, the orchestra's various ensembles perform (without Dudamel). Returns only for most of these, but there are free rehearsal tickets available on 13 and 14 April if you can get there in the morning, and on 17 April there's a free performance by the brass ensemble at 6pm.
The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment present another of their occasional and agreeably relaxed late night concerts in the Queen Elizabeth Hall on 23 April at 10pm. Ed Gardner conducts Mozart and Haydn, and tickets are a positive giveaway at £8, or £4 for students.
