Performer: Julian Crouch

The leafy parks and cobbled streets of Riga’s old town are far removed from the intense heat of the little village in the Basque Country in which Donizetti set his L'elisir d'amore, but a new production at the Latvian National Opera captures much of the spirit of the work, adroitly balancing comedy with the joys and pain of love.

Phelim McDermott's popular staging of Satyagraha, which verges on the lush and the voluptuous, is revived to open English National Opera's season.

Sven-Eric Bechtolf's staging holds a balance between philosophy and humour, but Adam Fischer's vivacious conducting is the real star of the evening.