Latest news with #HenryPurcell
Times
17-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
Dirty jokes and English beer — the baroque stars of the all-night Prom
Raucous, uproarious and salted with dirty jokes, Bjarte Eike's Alehouse Sessions have become his unlikely golden ticket — and he knows it. The Norwegian violinist, founder of Barokksolistene, is a fan of beer and Henry Purcell, and a passionate anglophile. It turns out that by uniting these three loves into a flexible concert experience inspired by the music of late-17th-century London he can play to huge and ecstatic crowds in all sorts of places. Earlier this summer I heard his group play an Alehouse show in Koko, Camden Town — to a standing crowd of twenty and thirtysomethings who bellowed their approval (and drank many overpriced pints of IPA while doing so). 'That was part of a five-concert [UK] tour and all five concerts were completely sold out, and they were all standing-only,' Eike says. The Alehouse Sessions have also gone to Europe's fanciest concert halls — 'We sold out at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, with a capacity of 2,000 or something. We've played in the Konzerthaus in Vienna numerous times and we're going back there next year.' • Eike likes to think of the show, which started in 2007, 'as a tree, with all those different branches in it'. He means that it can be adapted to fit the atmosphere. 'So if we're in a beer festival, I would play more on the … beer topics. At a children's concert we wouldn't talk about alcohol.' He recalls a memorable show at a gay club in the Hague. 'We seem to be, er, darlings with the festivals that need to do outreach. Of course that concert was not just for gay people. But there was glitter and bling and … videos with soft porn playing in the corner. It was quite something.' There's no avoiding Eike in Britain this summer. He and Barokksolistene will be at the Edinburgh International Festival for a ceilidh-infused twist on the Alehouse programme. After a show at Snape in Suffolk, they then come to the Royal Albert Hall to provide witching hour entertainment for the Dark till Dawn Prom hosted by the organist Anna Lapwood — an all-night concert. 'I think we have one hour, then a small break, then half an hour at some time between midnight and 2am.' What do people want to hear at two in the morning? 'Well, we'll bring an extra percussion player, an extra fiddle and an all-female dance group from Norway called Mamelukk. They do a particularly virtuosic type of dance, which is traditionally reserved for males, but these girls have taken the whole tradition on. It's a more Nordic style of Alehouse, if you like.' The Alehouse Sessions invite a relaxed, jovial response. But Eike says the secret is to take it very seriously. 'My guys and girls have never [allowed any] compromise when it comes to the quality of the music. And then the story … well, it happens to be a good one.' He's talking about the historical basis for the Alehouse — harking back to the era in which Oliver Cromwell closed the London theatres, so musicians set up informally in taverns instead. Even after the Restoration, this style of music-making continued to flourish. 'Music was back in fashion under Charles II but they couldn't build theatres fast enough. So the back rooms of alehouses were turned into music rooms.' Punters paid a form of membership to support the musicians and reserve a good seat. 'So it could be argued that the whole idea of a subscription to a symphony orchestra began in England in the 1670s.' Not all Alehouse music may have been sophisticated — the written scores that survive are often limited to a single line of melody, the tune with older roots in English folk (hats off to Barokksolistene for their springily complex arrangements). As for the lyrics, Eike does not think I should share with Times readers one salacious number that begins 'John had a thing that was long', and when he concludes the verse I agree with him that it ought to remain unprinted. 'And that one's by Henry Purcell, who also writes, you know, the Funeral Music for Queen Mary …' It's the connections between Purcell and the alehouse tradition that have fed into Eike and the Barokksolistene's other big project of the summer, before the Proms and the Edinburgh festival: a revamp or 'expansion' of Purcell's one-act opera Dido and Aeneas, which the group will present at Longborough Festival in Gloucestershire as a full evening of entertainment. 'It's not about turning Dido into a sort of pub session or making it cheap. But it will be more true to what I think Purcell is about.' Look at what we call the score of Dido, Eike argues, and it's actually full of gaps — instructions for dance but no music to set the dance to, as well as a lost overture, chorus and entire prologue. So in his new version Aeneas and Dido will get new arias, drawn from other, earthier works by Purcell. Dido's new number is an attempt to fill a glaring gap at the centre of the opera, a declaration of love for her Trojan toyboy in the scene set in the grove. 'It's such a pity that Dido doesn't have anything to sing! There are all these things going on. They're sitting there. They're being entertained … and her response is: 'Oops. It's gonna rain. Let's go home.' What an anticlimax.' Eike has added more characters to the drama, and his musicians will be acting as well as playing. The night will finish with a wake for the dead queen, with sea shanties imported from the Alehouse Sessions. Eike has devoted much of his career to a particularly English tranche of music and culture. So I wonder how he feels about the increasingly volatile debate about 'English values' being lost, either through immigration, deference to other nations in the UK or through fear of being perceived to be boorish or nationalistic. 'I think you're on to something. If you take the field of folk music, it's always the Scottish or the Irish, never the English, right? But you have a strong English tradition.' In Norway, he says, there is concern that young people are becoming ' historielose ' (literally, 'history-less'). 'But you have a lot to be proud of in England. It doesn't always have to be about having a bad conscience about various things you've done in the past.' Grab a beer — and toast John and his thing that was long.
Time Out
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
DnA Fest
Photograph: T:>Works If you're down to get edgy, mark your calendar for DnA Fest – an unexpected collision of different arts disciplines, served with a side of sass. Sit back for a screening of The House of Janus – a modern film take on Henry Purcell's opera Dido and Aeneas – starring and directed by Ong Keng Sen who's also responsible for local comedy hit movie Army Daze . Or, get wild with Dido & The Belindas , a vibrant drag spectacle featuring none other than queen Becca D'Bus. End it off with Afterparty, an underground ballroom event with flashy runway battles and wicked beats. Find out more here . Wed, 16 Jul 2025 Thu, 17 Jul 2025 Fri, 18 Jul 2025 Sat, 19 Jul 2025 Wed, 23 Jul 2025 Thu, 24 Jul 2025 Fri, 25 Jul 2025 Sat, 26 Jul 2025 By entering your email address you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and consent to receive emails from Time Out about news, events, offers and partner promotions. 🙌 Awesome, you're subscribed! Thanks for subscribing! Look out for your first newsletter in your inbox soon! Discover Time Out original video
Irish Independent
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Blackwater Valley Opera Festival: What's still available to book
Understandably, this performance of a mainly Irish cast, supported by the Irish Chamber Orchestra, is completely sold out, but for those who didn't catch the early opera treats, there is still time to dive in to the event, which runs from May 27 to June 2. With 23 events, two full opera productions, and over 100 world-class artists performing in ticketed and free events across 12 unique venues, it is the most ambitious programme in the festival's 15-year history, say organisers. There are performances in a castle, a cathedral and a 19th century farmhouse, as well as in historic homes. The festival will also bring live performances to Cappoquin, Dungarvan, Stradbally, Youghal, and Castlemartyr. So if you haven't yet planned your trip, here are some hidden gems you can still get to see. Opera in the cathedral Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, featuring Paula Murrihy, Dean Murphy, Kelli-Ann Masterson, and the Irish Baroque Orchestra, will showcase the expressive beauty of baroque opera, offering a striking contrast in musical style and atmosphere across the festival. Tuesday, May 27's showing still has limited tickets available. It takes place at St Carthage's Cathedral, Lismore, Waterford. Tickets €20-€40. Concerts at Dromore Yard A romantic, semi-restored 19th-century farmyard on the banks of the River Blackwater sets the scene for two of the festival's most anticipated performances, headlined by internationally celebrated Irish mezzo-sopranos Paula Murrihy and Niamh O'Sullivan. Ms O'Sullivan's Where Birds Do Sing recital with pianist Gary Beecher from 3pm on Sunday, June 1 promises to be a standout moment – following their acclaimed appearance at Wigmore Hall, London. Some limited €35-€60 tickets are still available, but you will have to be quick. Paula Murrihy returns to the same venue for the festival finale, Baroque Hits, on Monday, June 2 from 8pm, performing with the Irish Baroque Orchestra under the baton of Nicholas McGegan. A handful of €25 tickets remain. ADVERTISEMENT Free outdoor recitals Throughout the week, a series of intimate classical performances will take place in historic homes and venues across the Blackwater Valley. The programme highlights include Shakespeare in Music, The Tinker and the Fairy, and a special poetry and music recital honouring George Bernard Shaw, with tickets starting at €25 for unallocated seating. However, there are also four lunchtime recitals that are free to attend on Tuesday, May 27 at Millenium Park in Lismore, on Friday, May 30 at at Walton Park in Dungarven, on Saturday, May 31 at Green Park in Youghal and on Sunday, June 1 at Castlemartyr Resort. They all start at 12pm and run for one hour, with the exception of Castlematyr, which starts at 1pm. Although there is no charge, attendees do need to book online at Witness the talent of tomorrow The festival supports emerging talent through four bursary awards, recognising exceptional promise in young artists and performers. This year's recipients will appear alongside Irish Heritage award winners in live performances during the week. Tickets for the recital of soprano Aimee Kearney and pianist Georgina Cassidy on Wednesday, May 28 from 1pm at Tourin House in Waterford are still available at €25 plus booking fee. Indulge in fine food – or a picnic Food lovers can look forward to a feast of flavours throughout the week, including a Midsummer-inspired menu created by celebrity TV chef Eunice Power, served in tents on the grounds of Lismore Castle. This three-course Italian-style meal is sold-out on Wednesday, May 28, but you can book for Friday, Saturday or Sunday. Dinner starts at 5.15pm and costs €85 per person for the standard menu or €75 for vegan. A booking fee is also added. Pre-show gourmet picnics are also available to order for Lismore Castle on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday, or at Dromore Yard on Sunday and Monday. There's also an option at that location to pay a corkage fee of €10 to bring your own picnic. At Lismore Castle the picnic boxes showcase Comeragh lamb, Clare Island salmon and Irish cheeses, with a plant-based option also available. Both cost €55 plus a booking fee. At Dromore Yard, the menu includes either a chicken or falafel mezze costing €45 plus booking fee. Those heading to recitals can avail from some set menu deals at local eateries like The Saucy Hen in Villierstown, Barron's in Cappoquin, and Fuller's Bistro and The Vault Café in Lismore. All menus and prices are on the festival's website, where you can book meals.
Telegraph
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Purcell shaped classical music – here are the pieces that prove it
After the death of Henry Purcell in 1695, his friend the organist Henry Hall wrote a notable couplet: 'Sometimes a HERO in an Age appears/But scarce a PURCELL in a Thousand Years'. Unfortunately, the prediction turned into near-prophesy, as English music produced no-one to rival Purcell's genius, arguably until Elgar, 200 years later. Purcell died far too young at 36, but he had made his mark. His memorial in Westminster Abbey says that he has 'gone to that Blessed Place where only his Harmony can be exceeded', a stirring remembrance of a composer who changed the course of British music and continues to have a unique resonance for our time. Now, after a century of the early music revival, Purcell's stock as a reinventor of a truly British musical style has never been higher – but what does this have to tell us about his unique achievement? Take his dramatic music: no-one has written a lament of the depth and intensity of Dido's 'When I am laid in earth' from Dido and Aeneas, with its piercing cries of 'Remember me!'. No-one has written dance music of the exuberance and sophistication displayed in The Fairy Queen, with its bubbling rhythms and intoxicating energy. There are some very specific things which made Purcell a revolutionary in the English music of his era, but which also binds him securely to our own time. Here are some reasons he matters – and the music you should listen to. 1. Purcell was a musical magpie His style was cosmopolitan and outward-looking. Like all the best British composers, he drew inspiration from the melting-pot of styles around him. When you listen to the dazzling Passacaglia from King Arthur 'How happy the lover', its lilting triple time flow and endless variations over a repeated set of harmonies are clearly derived from the French passacaglias of Lully and his contemporaries. On the other hand, Purcell's trio sonatas reflect precisely the innovations of the Italian style that Corelli pioneered, with two violins contesting contrapuntally. Yet behind this is the English tradition of equal-voiced counterpoint that Purcell first explored in his chromatically adventurous Fantazias for viols, written when he was in his 20s: it's a distinctive, heady stylistic brew. Sonatas in 3 parts: Christopher Hogwood/Academy of Ancient Music 2. Purcell enjoyed rumbustious fun There was no condescending snobbish division for him between the intense spiritual language of his church anthems like the sublime 'Remember not Lord our offences', and the bawdy catches he wrote for coffee and ale-houses – in which the texts of these rounds become ever more salacious the more vocal parts are added and the texts can be heard combined. Listen: Remember O Lord our offences/Simon Preston/Christ Church Cathedral Choir Purcell in Court and Tavern: Mark Brown/Pro Cantione Antiqua 3. Purcell loved a good tune He set English words better than anyone (maybe until Arthur Sullivan), and his melodies have a natural flow that was sensed by Benjamin Britten, who arranged many of them to sing with his partner Peter Pears. In the 1940s, Michael Tippett heard the countertenor Alfred Deller sing 'Music for a while shall all your cares beguile' and said that 'in that moment, the centuries rolled back'. What could be more perfectly shaped than the melody of 'If love's a sweet passion'? Or the descriptive melisma of 'I attempt from love's sickness to fly….'? Purcell songs realised by Britten: Allan Clayton/Joseph Middleton 4. Purcell knew how to sell his wares He grew up in the shadow of Westminster Abbey where his family worked, and never moved from the area (sadly, none of the places he lived survive, nor can exact addresses be found, so he has no Blue Plaque). As a young boy he survived the Plague of 1665 and the Great Fire of 1666; he trained and sang as choirboy until his voice broke, when he repaired instruments and grew in composing skills, becoming Organist at the Abbey. He was determined to advance his own cause; his contemporary Thomas Tudway said that 'he had the most commendable ambition of exceeding everyone of his own time', an aim in which we may say he totally succeeded. There were bumps along the way: he was censured for selling places in the organ loft for the Coronation of William and Mary, making the large sum of £500 which he had to repay to the authorities. He formed a friendly alliance with the publisher John Playford and his son Henry, who sold music at the Inner Temple, and Purcell's wife Frances continued to publish and circulate his music, especially his songs, after his all-too-early death. A Purcell Songbook: Emma Kirkby/Anthony Rooley/Christopher Hogwood 5. Purcell was a master of his craft From his earliest years in Westminster he would have practised music and studied it every day of his life. His expressiveness, whether in complex counterpoint or simple melody, came from a total mastery of the musical techniques he had available to him. Nowadays there seems to be a scepticism that the study of musical notation, and harmonic practice, are necessary to composers. Yes, we value improvisation and spontaneity, and they were vital to Purcell's style, but for him they were built on the foundation of impeccable learning and constant practice. When we read in a contemporary account that the air 'Tis nature's Voice' in his Ode Hail bright Cecilia was 'sung with incredible graces by Mr Purcell himself', we can be sure that the elaboration and freedom applied to his music was based on fundamental mastery of the language. 6. Purcell provides one model for future music education When Benjamin Britten was commissioned to write after the Second World War what was then rather patronisingly called a 'Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra', he chose a theme from Purcell's theatre music. It was a way of demonstrating, brilliantly, how it could be varied to show the character of all the different instruments of the orchestra, across strings, woodwind, brass, percussion and harp, building a tremendous fugue which is combined at the close with Purcell's melody – the piece is now more often known as the Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell. It could be the starting point for new explorations of contemporary music scoring in a new generation. Britten/Purcell Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra: Andrew Davis BBC SO 7. Purcell inspired future generations Britten and Tippett venerated Purcell at a time when they wanted to cast aside the legacy of the 20 th -century English pastoral tradition, which had been caricatured as the 'English cowpat' school of music depicting 'a cow looking over a gate'. Instead, they reached much further back in English musical history and Purcell's imprint can be heard in much of their work. Purcell later entered the world of techno music and film: Wendy Carlos took the hypnotic march from the Funeral Music for Queen Mary (with its hypnotic drum beats that had actually been added by their 20 th -century editor Thurston Dart) and turned it into a powerful piece for Moog synthesiser. That turned up as the scary opening music to the score for Stanley Kubrick's film adaptation of A Clockwork Orange. One way or another, Purcell had achieved a place alongside the greats of Western music. Nicholas Kenyon, the Telegraph's Chief Opera Critic, gave the inaugural Purcell Lecture at the Stationers Hall, London this month
The Guardian
29-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Wigmore Hall's principled stand over public funding is music to my ears
The news that Wigmore Hall in London is to turn its back on an annual subsidy of £345,000 from Arts Council England (ACE), after a successful campaign to raise £10m from individuals and the private sector, is almost as beautiful to my ears as the last thing I heard there, which was the Dunedin Consort playing Henry Purcell. Its director, John Gilhooly, is surely right to free his institution from the Let's Create strategy, which informs all ACE's funding decisions, linking subsidies to onerous outreach work rather than to excellence in performance. Such organisations shouldn't have to do what is properly the work of the government, and perhaps the Wigmore's decision is the start of resistance to this. I certainly hope so. On the face of it, the Wiggy, which specialises in chamber and early music, seems the opposite of radical. Its cloakroom and old-fashioned, over-lit basement restaurant always remind me of the Sheffield City Hall I knew as a child; I love it and think of it as a safe space, but whenever I'm there, I spend most of my time worrying that I'll cough, thus incurring the disapproval of members of its crazily attentive and committed audience. But hey, appearances can be deceptive. The revolution will not be televised, but it may accompanied by a lute and a soaring tenor voice. Like Queen Elizabeth II, who owned quite a lot of it, I sometimes dream of retiring to the Forest of Bowland in Lancashire. Unknown to many, it unfolds before you, magical and secret, its incomparable brown-greenness somehow always tipped with gold even on a grey day. Tolkien went to Stonyhurst College, which is close to the Ribble, one of two rivers that flow through it, and once you've seen it with your own eyes, you know there's no doubting this was the inspiration for Middle-earth. In Dunsop Bridge, a tiny village bordered only by fells, we wandered into St Hubert's, a Catholic church designed by Edward Pugin for the Towneley family in 1865. A notice informed us that the Towneleys funded the building with the winnings of their racehorse, Kettledrum, and, sure enough, high on the painted roof of the apse, we found the thoroughbred, as glossy and brown as a conker. God moves in mysterious ways, and it seems he may have played his part in the last-minute faltering of the favourite at the 1861 Epsom Derby, a drama that allowed Kettledrum to win by a length. Is it my imagination, or is the third season of The White Lotus receiving a level of attention the first two did not? On social media, there's no escape from the blond bob of Leslie Bibb, who plays the (possibly) Republican Kate; any minute now, Aimee Lou Wood's much-discussed, natural sticky-out teeth will surely get their own show (Wood stars as Chelsea, the astrology-loving British girlfriend of the bleakly irascible Rick). Sign up to Observed Analysis and opinion on the week's news and culture brought to you by the best Observer writers after newsletter promotion The chatter! Even the philosophers are at it. Kathleen Stock, late of Sussex University, believes that The White Lotus's creator, Mike White, has been reading the French novelist Michel Houellebecq on holiday, with the result – excellent and subtle, in her eyes – that viewers can 'vicariously enjoy the fruits of hyper-liberalism as well as its poisons'. Apparently, those of us who are feeling slightly guilty about how much we look forward to the series can relax (maybe with a frangipane-scented candle). The bitching, the bikinis and the dubious sex are trailed by the kind of heavy subtext that – if it were a person – would stay in the shade and wear a chore jacket from Folk. Rachel Cooke is an Observer columnist
