Artiste: Matthew Hargreaves

West Green House Opera opened its season with a cast of rising stars and veterans in an simple, but elegant production of Verdi's classic La traviata.

Swanhunter is a fine retelling of a wonderful yarn, and this rendering of it contains a great deal to enjoy for an audience of all ages, albeit marred by inconsistent intelligibity.

Two years ago, when this controversial production by Peter Konwitschny was first seen at English National Opera, I was completely knocked sideways by it. Could it deliver the same emotional blow to the solar plexus this time around?