Artiste: Philip Hesketh

A “high-five” for the maturity, professionalism and outstanding production values of the London Children's Ballet's latest full-length ballet.

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.

A note in the programme honestly records the trepidation Opéra de Baugé felt in taking on Verdi’s Aida, a tougher prospect than the other operas with which it’s in rep, Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore and Johann Strauss II’s Die Fledermaus.

Amateur orchestras attract loyal audiences who turn up whatever is on the programme, and this may account for the fact that both Adrian Brown of the Bromley Symphony Orchestra last week, and Philip Hesketh tonight, felt the need to provide an introductory talk. Indeed, the first half of this concert consisted of an extended introduction to Bruckner and his Eighth Symphony.