Performer: Chris Webb

Hampstead Garden Opera’s new staging of Xerxes is slick and contemporary with a well thought-out re-interpretation of the plot, offering a fresh perspective to the opera.

La Calisto is a delicious mash-up of two classical legends: Jupiter’s seduction of Diana’s acolyte Calisto and Diana’s own romance with the shepherd Endymion. The plot is helter-skelter, Anne Ridler’s translation of Giovanni Faustini’s libretto is sassy and fun. I can’t imagine being more entertained by an evening’s chamber opera.