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A pasticcio not seen since 1725, Elpidia contains some excellent music... even if it isn't by Handel!

Metastasio's tale of noble Roman suicide was made into a pasticcio by Handel in 1732: and, after 283 years of silence, returned to the London stage as part of the 2015 London Handel Festival. 

OperaUpClose have set their version of Verdi’s classic in the 1920s, with some beautiful period costumes and a few prettily observed production details It’s a big story on a very small scale.

Wit is the ruling spirit of British Youth Opera’s delectable production of Benjamin Britten and W.H. Auden’s operetta Paul Bunyan, directed by Will Kerley.

Had you been travelling, in the mid 18th century, around the crowned courts of middle Europe, there would have been little debate as to who was the most celebrated opera composer and ensemble: Johann Adolph Hasse and his company at the Saxon court of Dresden.

Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival is an amazing opportunity for emerging opera companies and performers, giving valuable time and attention to bold and strange new works.

If anyone tells you that all opera is highbrow, Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld provides you with a perfect example of the opposite. It's coarse, raunchy, fast, fun, and continually pokes fun at the conventions of grand opera.