In John Blow’s Venus and Adonis, the love god­dess res­olute­ly sends her lover on a hunt – with dis­as­trous con­se­quences. Anne Finch’s libret­to turns to gold in Blow’s expert hands: his score embod­ies the emerg­ing, shame­less­ly var­ied opera style of the English Restoration peri­od. This lit­tle gem is in good hands with Elizabeth Kenny and her Theatre of the Ayre.