"The best discovery so far of my time as music critic on this newspaper is Hampstead Garden Opera - a small, largely amateur company but assured, competent and ambitious." – Michael White for Ham & High. Read the full review

"The musical tour-de-force in the piece is Susannah's aria, The Trees on the Mountain, which was sung with stunning grace and power by Helen Bailey. [...] Because the drama works and because the music is so vivid and accessible, I'm convinced that Susannah is a great opera to attract new audiences to the genre, and I'm surprised that it's hardly ever been performed here in Britain." – David Karlin for Bachtrack. Read the full review

AUTUMN 2009 PRODUCTION

In November we shall be celebrating the 350th anniversary of the birth of Henry Purcell with a double-bill of 17th century operas – John Blow’s Venus & Adonis, the earliest surviving British opera, together with the first English operatic masterpiece, Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas, written a few years later.

HGO’s inventive production of this rare and enchanting double-bill, " a marriage made in heaven " , is guaranteed to seduce the ear, charm the eye and melt the heart.