J C Bach's Adriano in Siria, Royal College of Music

Johann Sebastian Bach must have been one of the hardest acts to follow in the history of music, but for a time in the eighteenth century Johann Christian Bach, his youngest surviving child, was one of the most fashionable composers in Europe. Based in London for the last decades of his life, he galvanised the British music scene, along the way becoming friends with Mozart - not a musician known for having much respect for his colleagues. 
Now, two and a half centuries after it was premiered in Haymarket, Bach's opera Adriano in Siria is finally being revived, courtesy of acclaimed period ensemble Classical Opera. Ian Page, the group's founder, conducts, while Rowan Heller and Stuart Jackson take the lead roles. 
The opera - which boasts music of perfect simplicity, a handful of virtuosic showpieces and a stately sense of serenity - tells the tale of Osroa, an assassin sent to kill the Emperor Hadrian. When he discovers the plot, the magnanimous Ceasar reacts not with recriminations but forgiveness and generosity. This is a unique - possibly once in a lifetime - chance to see one of the great neglected works of the eighteenth century.