Performer: Dmitry Yumashev

Considering the number of operas he set in Britain, Donizetti was surprisingly unfamiliar with the place – Emilia di Liverpool famously has characters, one of whom is the long lost “Count of Liverpool”, stopping off there on their way from London to Oxford.

Lust, betrayal, beheadings. The words appeared prominently in the publicity for Opera Seria’s debut production of Donizetti’s Anna Bolena, bringing Horrible Histories fleetingly to mind, but they do sum up the plot of one of the composer’s greatest works rather well.

A cold and rainy Wednesday evening in Leeds is not usually the setting for lust, betrayal, and murder. I found myself at the Clothworkers Centenary Concert Hall at the University of Leeds ready to experience the UK premiere of Act I of Sergey Taneyev’s masterpiece Oresteia, first performed at the Mariinsky Theatre in 1895.