Only some 40 years separate Dido and Æneas, Purcell's only true opera, but the first great opera ever written by an English composer and The Beggar's Opera from the newer trendy age of a Georgian London where Handel was the rising star.

Dido is tragic in the classical style with music of rare dignity and beauty. Many music lovers will recognise Dido's agonising Lament. The second piece is a "ballad opera" with a hotchpotch of music ranging from Scottish and Irish folksongs to shamelessly burgled arias by Handel, Purcell, Johann Christian Pepusch and others.

Two different pieces require two different styles.

Directors Sarah Helsby-Hughes (Dido) and Dean Taylor (Beggar's Opera) delivered exactly that. In Dido the classic restraint of the tragic tale was interspersed with some deliciously stylised dancing and movement from the versatile cast of six wonderful young singers. The dramatic action ranged from the rambunctious to the intensely passionate and intimate.

On a more worldly level, The Beggar's Opera explored the seediness, hypocrisy and corruption that was common to both the toffs and the low life of the time. The racy adaptation by Dean Taylor and musical director Chris Gill captured wonderfully the inherent satire and squalor of the period.

Both directors made imaginative use of the unusually shaped Shire Hall.

In the intimate 'half-in-the-round' auditorium, with the audience so close to the action, this is opera at its most intimate, most powerful and most exciting. The assured professionalism of these young singers and players, under Musical Director Chris Gill's able and imaginative leadership, gave us an varied evening of enormous passion and pleasure.

This company is a jewel in the cultural life of the North West. Heritage Opera is back at Lancaster Castle in late February with two performance of Rossini's The Barber of Seville.

Book now or you'll miss out.

Michael Nunn