Michael Dervanreviews Terfel, UO/Jones, and Michael Seaverreviews Next to Skin and

Terfel, UO/Jones at the NCH, Dublin

Bryn Terfel is a class act. But then that's something you can say about most of the singers who have achieved the kind of high-flying career success that's come to the Welsh bass baritone. Terfel makes it all look and sound so easy, from the instant rapport with the audience and the free-flowing and informative introductions to the actual singing itself.

He has that knack of making everything fully his own, while at the same time stepping out of himself, from one character into another, from one style into another, in order to make the illusion work.

He makes the transition from opera into musicals in a seamless way, perhaps because he allows his slightly clipped Welsh enunciation to make its presence felt in most of what he sings.

He held the audience in the proverbial palm of his hand at the National Concert Hall on Wednesday, and was at his most impressive in the closing arias of the first half. The timing, variety, menace and glee of his laughter in Méphistophélès's Vous qui faites l'endormie, from the fourth act of Gounod's Faust, were a delight, and he revelled in the strutting volatility of Falstaff's Ehi! Paggio, from Verdi's Falstaff, which gave him ample scope to show off his comic skills.

Gareth Jones conducted the Ulster Orchestra with a lot of verve, the greatest musical impact coming in the Polonaise from Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin and the extraordinary rich tapestry of the Verdi Falstaff aria. The players seemed to enjoy letting their hair down for the lighter items of the second half, even though some of the arrangements were less than first-rate, and the fullness of the scoring sometimes forced Terfel into overdrive. It was one of those evenings where a good time was had by all.

Bryn Terfel and the Ulster Orchestra perform at Waterfront Hall, Belfast, tonight

Next to Skin at Project, Dublin

Next to Skin: The World From Inside and Outside is intimate, but under the skin is as close as you can get, and this is the metaphoric territory that John Scott creates onstage in another marauding collection of vocalisations and movement-bites.

On opening night, some of these were coming from the audience, with sighs and shifting limbs suggesting that the choreographer got under the skin of a few punters. It is true that Scott's aesthetic hoists up question marks rather than exclamation marks, but perseverance really does pay off.

Faranak Mehdi Golhini sets out the stall alone on stage, reading dog-eared sheets of paper behind a microphone. She describes the intimacy of waking together and of the electricity that passes between two loving beings, and this sense of togetherness becomes the nub of the work, not in any wet-eyed way but through the simple strength of community. A procession of dancers walks slowly backwards in single file, guiding hands on the backs of the dancers in front, and elsewhere loose-limbed duets - either playful or solemn - all articulate this collective support.

Later, Lucius Romeo-Fromm leads the cast through a succession of movement exercises, spicing the instructions with dance-class phrases such as "do the seal" (to describe lifting the head with nose pointing in the air) and "sumo" (for a low crouch). Perhaps more crucially, Scott has fattened up his material, with several clumps of dancers counterpointing each other, unlike previous works which forefronted single events.

Regular collaborator Eric Wurtz provides a lighting design that is every way as unpredictable as the choreography, with glaring washes of oranges and reds, pulsing spotlights on the black walls, and even lights focused on the gantry.

These warm tones soften the austerity of the dancers' high-pitched screams and twitches, just as Michael Scott's sparse music suggests interior emotions behind the abstract movements.

Although its vision is occasionally a bit muddy, Next to Skin is Scott's funniest and most human work to date.

Next to Skin: The World From Inside and Outside tours to the Riverbank Arts Centre, Newbridge (Jan 25), the Dock, Carrick-on-Shannon (Jan 27), Draíocht (Jan 30) and the Solstice Arts Centre, Navan (Feb 1)