Oz Clarke in Operatic Premiere

Armonico Consort presents a brand-new adaptation of Purcell’s semi-opera on Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream – with the very first performance at the Northern Aldborough Festival. 

Henry Purcell’s semi-opera The Fairy Queen will debut at The Northern Aldborough Festival on Friday 21 June, performed by the critically-acclaimed singers and period instrumentalists of Armonico Consort.

They’re joined by the UK’s favourite wine expert Oz Clarke, himself a former professional actor and choral singer, who will narrate a specially-adapted script of the work alongside actress and singer Laura Moretto.

First performed in 1692, The Fairy Queen brings together a spoken dialogue based on Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with a series of individual musical scenes through which Purcell enchants with a world of dreams and darkness, love and laughter.   Originally, this made for an event of more than six hours, a great deal of which, whilst highly entertaining, was very confusing – Armonico will bring this to life in a semi-staged concert format alongside a narration which will aim to make sense of Purcell’s incredible music.

From Scenes of the Drunken Poet and a Dance for the Green Men to a poignant lament for lost love, there’s humour, dance, theatrical effects, and some of Purcell’s most colourful instrumental and vocal writing.

The original score was lost after Purcell’s death in 1695 and rediscovered only in the early twentieth century, and recent revivals have generally excluded the spoken narrative.

Christopher Monks, Artistic Director of Armonico Consort says, “For centuries, what are amongst Purcell’s greatest and most memorable works have left audiences simply baffled by the confused and jumbled story linking them together. For the first time ever, and taking a teaspoon of artistic licence, we give his Fairy Queen our hugely successful ‘Dido and Aeneas’ treatment, which has been seen by audiences from England to Italy. Of course, all of this with a little bit of help and inspiration from Mr William Shakespeare…”

Before wine took over his life in 1984, Oz Clarke was a full-time actor and singer. He appeared on the West End stage as Sweeney Todd and General Peron in Evita, he played one of the first criminals to be apprehended by Superman in the 1978 film, and toured with the Royal Shakespeare Company.  His singing career, meanwhile, began as a choirboy at Canterbury, continuing with the Schola Cantorum (Oxford University’s premier chamber choir), and then with the renowned Monteverdi Choir and the Academy of St Martin’s.

Armonico Consort is one of the UK’s leading choir and period instrument ensembles. The critically-acclaimed group are especially noted for innovative presentations of work from the Renaissance and the Baroque which have earned them critical acclaim and five-star reviews in the national press.

Armonico Consort perform Purcell’s The Fairy Queen at St Andrew’s Church, Aldborough on 21 June, 7.30pm.  Book online: aldboroughfestival.co.uk