It’s fitting that Richard Mills should end his 11 years as Victorian Opera’s Artistic Director conducting his own ambitious new work.

Unfortunately his Galileo is too ambitious. Mills’s brilliant but busy score rapidly traverses various musical styles, while Malcolm Angelucci’s Italian libretto skips through the title character’s long, eventful life, pausing for theological, scientific and philosophical ruminations.

During its 140 minutes (plus interval), I wondered whether this challenging new work would be better suited to a more ponderous time of year, rather than a few days before Christmas when audiences turn to lighter fare – if they have the time and energy to attend a show at all.

I wondered whether that had anything to do with the fact that Galileo was announced last year as three performances of a fully-staged opera, but only realised as this one-off concert.

Samuel Dundas in Victorian Opera’s Galileo. Photo © Charlie Kinross

It explores the life of polymath Galileo Galilei, from his 16th century boyhood helping his musician father tune lutes, to his death, aged 77, a broken man.

In between he is celebrated for various scientific achievements, particularly by advancing the telescope and astronomy. However,...