Benslow Music Stages a Masterpiece of the Restoration Period
For the second year running, Benslow Music, the Hitchin-based centre which provides around 160 short courses - most of them residential - for non-professional musicians each year, is collaborating with the Centre for the Arts at North Hertfordshire College to stage a magical work, The Fairy Queen, written in the early 1690s by the great Restoration composer Henry Purcell.
- (1888PressRelease) March 16, 2013 - The piece was originally written to be performed with the context of Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream, but these days it is usually given as a self-contained operatic work. Benslow Music's production is based on a scenario devised by the Director Deborah Cohen, who is making waves around the nation's opera houses and who works at Welsh National Opera. The musical team is lead by two renowned baroque specialists, the harpsichordist Julian Perkins and the violinist Judy Tarling.
Benslow Music's cast of principals has been engaged following extensive auditions and consists of the best up and coming singing talent from the nation's conservatoires. The small chorus and the orchestra, which will be performing on period-style instruments, is made up of first-class non-professionals. The whole company assembles at Benslow Music's headquarters on Easter Monday and works solidly through the week, preparing for a fully-staged performance on Saturday 6 April at 8 pm.
As last year, much of the production's technical requirements are fulfilled by students and staff of North Hertforshire College, who are creating the backdrop and props, devising the lighting, providing make-up and hairdressing artists, and helping out with the front of house operations.
Said Stephen Pettitt, Director of Music at Benslow Music
"I'm thrilled that with the help of the staff and students of North Hertfordshire College as well as the team of tutors and musicians which we have brought together for this remarkable course we are able to perform this charming, tuneful and entertaining masterpiece. We're looking forward to an inspiring if frenetic and exhausting few days and to that moment, after the performance, where over a celebratory glass or two we can look back and say, wow, we actually did it."
Tickets for the performance, priced at just £12, are available from Benslow Music on 01462 459446. Students are admitted free if space allows.
For further details, or to arrange interviews with Stephen Pettitt or to order Press tickets please call or email Vicky Carlton, Marketing Assistant, at vicky ( @ ) benslowmusic dot org or on 01462 459446.
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