Best of British Opera

Ariodante by George Frideric Handel and The Turn Of The Screw by Benjamin Britten are both haunting pieces written by two composers in the height of their power.

Handel's Ariodante is one of the greatest British operas ever written and we have a pair of tickets to give away to Wednesday night's performance.

Ariodante features some of the composer's most beautiful melodies and a plot of Shakespearean intensity, each character sharply drawn in words and music. On the Scottish coast, a beautiful young woman is falsely accused of immorality and cast aside. Alone and ruined she and her lover are lost until her accuser here a jealous, tortured clergyman is exposed. A moving story of love, loss and redemption, Ariodante is rightly treasured as one of the most exciting discoveries of the Handel opera revival. With a rich and eloquent score, the opera is a record of passionate love, be it innocent or cruel, religious or romantic.

This co-production with Opera Theatre Company is directed and translated by acclaimed Handel interpreter and general director of ETO James Conway.

Britten's Turn Of The Screw is by far the most successful stage adaption of Henry James' evocative ghost story (notably filmed as The Innocents with Deborah Kerr). It is a compelling story of ghostly possession set in a remote Victorian estate but who is possessed, the nave young governess, or the two apparently innocent children in her charge? Britten's radiant, haunting music, builds with the story to a heart-stopping climax. The strong cast includes two gifted 12-year-old boys as the troubled orphan miles.

Turn Of The Screw is showing Tuesday and Friday at 7.30pm and Ariodante is showing on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday at 7.30pm.

The English Touring Opera presents The Turn Of The Screw and Ariodante

Theatre Royal Bath

From Tuesday until November 29