A concert performance of the two delightful dramatic works inspired by French music and dance.  Il ballo delle ingrate was written by Monteverdi for the Mantuan court, and is an Italian version of the French balet de cour.  Cupid, Venus and Pluto conspire to shame the Mantuan court ladies into being less hard-hearted in love.  Venus and Adonis, John Blow’s miniature opera written for the English court, tells the tragic story of Adonis’s infatuation with the goddess of Love, and is the model for Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas.