I’ve never seen a Gilbert & Sullivan opera before. Great fun and brilliantly staged. I managed to get to the pre-show talk this time, where I learned that it satirised “transpontine melodrama” – and, here, the bridge was the one over the Thames. So “south of the river” has a long reputation for being infra dig.

Even by the standards of opera, the characters were caricatures. The only moment of real feeling (besides mirth) was in a pretty, sentimental duet – “There grew a little flower” – between an elderly maiden and a ghost. I came out still humming the bridesmaids’ song.

• Sir Ruthven – Dominic Sedgwick
• Rose Maybud – Amy Freston
• Richard Dauntless – Xavier Hetherington