All I want for Christmas is Fantasio : Opera Rara score a hit

A new edition of Puccini's score springs to life in a meticulously prepared Opera Rara concert performance at the Barbican. 

This is the 27th Donizetti opera given the Opera Rara treatment and their ability to spot a hidden gem remains as adroit as ever. 

A youthful Bellini opera able to stand on its own two feet? Perhaps not, as Adelson e Salvini gets the Opera Rara treatment. 

The second collaboration between Opera Rara and the BBC Symphony Orchestra brought a starry cast to the Barbican Centre on Sunday evening for a revival of Donizetti’s tragic opera Belisario. Written in 1836, immediately after the triumph of Lucia di Lammermoor, it was an instant success following its première at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice and remained in the repertoire for several decades.

The road to immersion is paved with modish deflections as the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment performs 20th-century English string music. 

A Mozart's of symphonies – his last – under conductor Robin Ticciati is capped with a fine Jupiter, but is let down by the performances of its two predecessors.