Purcell’s late Baroque masterpiece takes its inspiration from exploring all the different aspects of love from A Midsummers’ Night Dream.
Shakespeare, in turn, absorbed many of his play's themes from Ovid’s two-thousand-year-old Metamorphoses.
It is this lineage that has given the production team (including Directors Eloise Lally and Seb Gillot) the courage and licence to completely re-imagine this superb opera, which plays as a quintet of Masques.
It premiered in London in 1692 when England was still emerging from the restrictions imposed by the Puritan regime.
Purcell grabbed the opportunity of Restoration freedoms to explore radical ideas about love and self expression that would have surely shocked many in his audience.
This HGO production is seen through the eyes and lens of The Photographer (inspired by the Surrealist and war photographer Lee Miller who lived in Downshire Hill, Hampstead)
She is shooting a fantasy of classical Athens and the fifteen members of the cast seem to float around the stage, striking poses and forming tableau that she records with her vintage camera.
The knowledgeable and enthusiastic audience were offered a reframing of the conventional narrative, an ensemble piece with cast members playing several roles.
The quality of the ensemble singing was outstanding as were the wonderful solos and duets (including a fabulous one that included a slow dance with the oboe player Katie Lewis actually on stage!)
Over two hours, the work is magically supported by HGO Antiqua Orchestra who shared the ample Jackson’s Lane stage with the exceptionally talented, young cast.
The dreamy lighting and costume design (perhaps inspired by another photographer - Cecil Beaton?) were integral to the unworldly sense of drifting reality.
There was ample humour too – watch out for the conga preceded by a lively rendition of YMCA – a must at all weddings!
I failed miserably to follow whatever narrative thread there was, but it didn’t matter.
This was a fabulously lavish visual treat – big, camp, joyous and taking no prisoners - and the music was, well, sublime.
The Fairy Queen runs at Jacksons Lane until April 28.
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