Artiste: Julian Perkins

Unlike his better-known contemporaries, Czech composer Zelenka has faded into obscurity, Spirato! and Barts Chamber Choir made an extremely persuasive case for this highly original music. 

The two works in Guildhall School’s Baroque opera double bill, Thomas Arne’s The Cooper and Stradella’s San Giovanni Battista had little in common except that both are rarely performed, yet somehow made quite good bedfellows. 

For sheer dramatic potential, let alone the beauty of its music, Daniel Purcell’s The Judgement of Paris is a rare find. In this celebratory performance at St John’s Smith Square, this long-lost opera sparkles at us across the silent centuries.