DEBORAH Warner’s inaugural season as Artistic Director at the Ustinov Studio at the Theatre Royal in Bath got off to a mixed start this summer with new productions of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest followed by Phaedra/Minotaur.

The latest production of Henry Purcell’s operatic masterpiece Dido and Aeneas continues the season with truly excellent performances from the eight-strong cast and five musicians.

She and the Ustinov’s music director Richard Hetherington have introduced opera to the intimate Ustinov Studio for the first time and in Dido and Aeneas they have a produced a positive triumph.

A packed auditorium showed their enthusiastic appreciation for the production directed by Isabelle Kettle, who comes from the Royal Opera House and has worked in the UK, New York and France.

Written around 1668, Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas has become a mainstay of the operatic repertoire containing music and arias of astonishing beauty that are known and loved throughout the world.

The opera tells the story of Dido, the widowed Queen of Carthage, and her lover Aeneas, a Trojan prince shipwrecked on his way to Italy after fleeing a besieged Troy.

Dido’s tragic response to her ultimate betrayal by Aeneas inspired Purcell to write one of the most beloved arias, “When I Am Laid In Earth” beautifully sung by award-winning New Zealand soprano Madison Nonoa.

She plays the betrayed Dido alongside Dominic Bowe, whose credits range from Glyndebourne Festival to Royal Academy Opera, as Aeneas.

The evening’s highlights included mezzo-soprano Georgia Mae Bishop as the Sorceress; an outstanding performance from soprano Ella Taylor as Belinda, Dido’s handmaiden, and Second Witch, and soprano Lauren Lodge-Campbell as First Witch and Attendant.

The cast was completed by tenor Richard Pinkstone as Sailor and baritone Hugo Herman-Wilson and bass-baritone Ben Knight as Bass Chorus.

Michael Papadopoulos, musical director for Dido and Aeneas, played the harpsichord and led an ensemble of musicians featuring violinists Elizaveta Saul and Aliayta Foon-Dancoes, Miguel Sobrinho on the viola and Findlay Spence on cello and continuum.

Praise should also go to the designers for the stark set, simple costumes, subtle lighting and movement.

Dido and Aeneas appears at the Ustinov Studio until Saturday, November 5. If you love opera, I’d highly recommend that you go and see it.

Tickets are on sale at the Theatre Royal Bath Box Office on 01225 448844 and online at www.theatreroyal.org.uk/ustinov