Baroquestock Festival
Purcell: King Arthur
Istante Collective, Matthew Brown, Natalie Coury
Heath Street Baptist Church, Hampstead. 10 May 2016

Under the title of “Possible Planets, Musical Spheres”, the latest annual Baroquestock Festival has been bringing the crowds into Hampstead’s homely Heath Street Baptist Church, notably for two performances of Purcell’s King Arthur. The original was first performed in May 1691 in the form of the very English Restoration genre of semi-opera, combining a spoken play with a series of musical masques at intervals during the play, reflecting aspects of the play, but usually without any of the principal roles of the play. Although it is usually performed just as a musical suite, this innovative production included enough elements of the spoken text and action to get a feel of a 17th century performance, aided by some impressive acting from the five singers, and real acting and narration from Christopher Hunter and dance from Tamra Hinson.

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