If the idea of chamber music and opera in a stunning historic setting, combined with fine food and wine, tickles your fancy then there can be few more pleasant ways to spend a weekend than at the Blue Mountains Opera Festival, presented at the exquisitely refurbished, wonderfully opulent yet eccentric Hydro Majestic Hotel.

After the success of last year’s inaugural festival, the event returned over the Queen’s Birthday Weekend under the continuing Artistic Directorship of Grace Kim, a concert pianist, teacher and Blue Mountains resident.

^{Grace Kim. Photograph © David Hill, Deep Hill Media}

For the 2017 Festival, Kim put together a sparkling programme that was eminently accessible and just right for the relaxed setting, but that also satisfied musically. The Festival began on Saturday morning with a High Tea Concert in the elegant Wintergarden Restaurant with its sweeping views across the Megalong Valley. Frank Celata, Associate Principal Clarinet with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and the Enigma Quartet – a Sydney-based string quartet (Marianne Broadfoot and Kerry Martin on violin, Rosemary Curtin on viola and Rowena McNeish on cello) – gave a lovely account of Mozart’s gorgeous, popular Clarinet Quintet written in...