Performer: Joely Cragg

Danyal Dhondy's new opera Shahrazad focuses on the brave young heroine who spins her stories each evening to keep her husband, King Shahryār, enthralled... and what happened when Shahrazad finished telling her final tale.

Contemporary classical music is happening in all manner of unexpected venues in London at the moment, from Peckham car parks to pubs. But it isn't just getting edgier – it's also getting more respectable, if last night's suave affair in the Royal Albert Hall's Elgar Room is anything to go by.