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Imagine dancing dolls in a magical toy shop, and a pair of fabulous can-can dancers plotting to stay together at any cost and you have the charming story of La boutique fantasque. With its vibrant and whimsical music this ballet is a sequence of exquisite dances, each more lively than the last, which is nothing less than sheer joy to listen to.

In contrast Rossini’s Stabat Mater is a work which teeters on the edge of sacred sentimentality and overt operatics. The bravura and rollickingly memorable tunes of the ‘Cujus animam’ and the fire and brimstone of ‘inflammatus et accensus’ seamlessly interweave with the unequivocally sacred qualities of the ‘Eja Mater’ and ‘Quando corpus morietur’, reflective of the shapely and plaintive qualities of pre-classical church music – a true masterpiece that is heartfelt, expressive and vocally shapely yet rhythmic and outspokenly operatic.