Maestro at the Opera, BBC Two, review Maestro at the Opera (BBC Two) makes Strictly Come Dancing look like a stroll in the park. Four "celebrities" have to learn how to conduct well enough for the winner to take command of a performance at the Royal Opera House. Of course this will be impossible in any true sense, as the potentially ill-judged insertions of clips showing Leonard Bernstein, Pierre Boulez and ROH's own Antonio Pappano being in charge of an orchestra demonstrated. Still, there was something charming and engaging about watching Josie Lawrence, Trevor Nelson, Marcus du Sautoy and Craig Revel Horwood waving their arms about in front of highly forgiving musicians. Maestro offered some genuine insight into what is to most an inscrutably esoteric skill. Every performer was both terrified and inspired by even the most basic but damnably difficult challenge of conducting: to keep the beat with your right hand while suggesting expression with your left. Horwood was the most entertaining: he danced his way through the Toreador Song from Bizet's Carmen with gestures so extravagant he kept the orchestra at a bombastic fortissimo. Meanwhile Trevor Nelson, encountering "one musical form that I've never ever embraced," found himself so seduced by Puccini's aria O mio babbino caro that he slipped into a trance. For the sheer chutzpah of bringing about an encounter between its contestants and one of the most sophisticated means of creative expression known to man surely Maestro is a talent show that should be applauded.