• Jack Edwards and Jane Oakshott readers
• Claire Tomlin and Kate Semmens soprano
• Timothy Travers-Brown countertenor
• Daniel Auchinloss and Patrick McCarthy tenor
• Michael Bundy bass
• Psalmody
• Essex Baroque Orchestra
• directed by Peter Holman

Henry Purcell’s Fairy Queen is the third of the series of extravagant semi-operas or musical plays he wrote for the Dorset Garden theatre in London in the early 1690s. It is an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, with many added scenes for spectacular scenic effects and operatic music. Purcell’s score contains some of his best-loved music, including the Scene of the Drunken Poet, the Masque of Night, Mystery, Secrecy and Sleep, the song ‘If love’s a sweet passion’ and the dialogue between Coridon and Mopsa. In this performance the musical scenes are linked by a specially-devised script, conveying the essence of the play.