Fleet Foxes, whose highly anticipated new album, Crack-Up, is due June 16, begin an extensive international tour with a four-night residency at Sydney Opera House this weekend. The shows are part of the Vivid LIVE celebration at the iconic venue, the last of which will stream live via the band's Facebook page. Fans around the world can tune in to the set streaming live on Monday, May 29, at 8 PM in Sydney, 11 AM in London, 6 AM on the US East Coast, and 3 AM on the US West Coast, or watch it again after the concert is complete.

The Sydney shows follow last week’s run of intimate shows in the Pacific Northwest. The Portland Mercury, reviewing the Crystal Ballroom show, cited an “almost religious-seeming intensity that made the Crystal feel like a cathedral.”

Uncut calls the new album “astonishing.” The Times of London exclaims: “Likely to be the most remarkable album you will hear this year … the return of one of the most original bands of this century.”

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Pianist Jeremy Denk joins the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Susanna Mälkki, for a performance of Béla Bartók’s Piano Concerto No. 3, at Musiikkitalo Concert Hall in Helsinki tonight. Also on the program is music from Bartók’s ballet The Wooden Prince.

The New York Times says Denk “is a pianist you want to hear no matter what he performs, in whatever combination—both for his penetrating intellectual engagement with the music and for the generosity of his playing.” The Washington Post has praised him for “expressing virtuosity, humor, nostalgia and experimental daring” as well as his “inimitable sensibility … alive to the work’s poetry, wit, impulsiveness and off-beat yet irresistible charm.”

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Richard Goode gives a solo piano recital at the Assembly Rooms in Bath, England, on Sunday afternoon as part of the Bath Festival. On the program are works by Bach, Chopin, and Beethoven.

The Los Angeles Times calls Goode’s approach to Bach “a small miracle of sensitivity, expression and nuance,” while the New York Times describes his Beethoven performances as “remarkable” and “surprisingly intimate,” praising his playing both for its “organic naturalness” and “unerringly lyric sensibility.” The San Francisco Examiner applauds the "exploratory, spontaneous charge" the pianist brings to Chopin’s music.

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Tigran Hamasyan continues his world tour, featuring music from his new album, An Ancient Observer, in Japan this weekend: performing at Garaman Hall in Okinawa tonight, Shikiori in Fuuoka on Saturday, and Yakushima Nature Park on Sunday. DownBeat says the new album is “simply breathtaking."

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The new production of Alban Berg's opera Lulu directed by acclaimed South African visual artist William Kentridge opened at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma in Italy last weekend and continues with performances through May 30, including this Sunday. The Guardian writes: “Kentridge makes Berg's opera a serious visual feast.”

Nonesuch released a Blu-ray/DVD of Kentridge’s production performed by the Metropolitan Opera last year. The 2015 Met performances captured on the Blu-ray/DVD starred Marlis Petersen in her final performances as Lulu. "A stunning and searing production," said the New York Times.

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Audra McDonald performs at the Music Center at Strathmore in Bethesda, Maryland, tonight, and the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center in Westhampton, New York, on Saturday. She brings her Tony Award–winning performance of Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill to Wyndham’s Theatre in London on June 17. McDonald spoke with the Washington Post about all of these performances and more; you can read what she had to say here.

The Chicago Tribune, reviewing Audra McDonald’s performance at the Steppenwolf Theatre earlier this week, called it “a rare chance to see such a talent in an intimate setting.” Tribune critic Chris Jones exclaims: “McDonald is at the peak of her vocal powers.”

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Pat Metheny continues his month-long tour of Europe with drummer Antonio Sánchez, pianist Gwilym Simcock, and bassist Linda Oh, performing at L’Amphitheatre in Lyon, France, tonight, followed by two-sold out shows in Spain: at Barts Theater in Barcelona on Saturday and Auditorio Nacional, Sala Sinfónica in Madrid on Sunday. The quartet concludes the weekend’s performances with a show at Kursaal Auditorium in San Sebastian on Monday.

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The Staves perform on the Miner Family Winery Stage in Napa, California, this afternoon, as part of the sold-out BottleRock Napa Valley festival. The Watford–born sisters, now based in Minneapolis, launch a two-week tour of the UK and Ireland next week.

DIY Magazine praises the trio’s “power to reach out and entrance with their tumbling harmonies, leaving the crowd hanging on every word … There’s no showy stagecraft on show, yet the whole room is smitten.”

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Chris Thile concludes his week-long US tour with banjoist Béla Fleck with shows at Harvester Performance Center in Rocky Mount, Virginia, tonight, Allegany County Fairgrounds in Cumberland, Maryland, on Saturday, as part of DelFest, and Southern Theatre in Columbus, Ohio, on Sunday.

“The most impressive musicians are often versatile, but few match the breadth of the brilliant mandolinist Chris Thile,” says the New York Times. “His versatility is apparent in the remarkable range of colors and shadings he produces on his instrument; phrases unfold with myriad subtle gradations.”