Concerts in the West: Fair Oriana

TICKETS: £14 Adult, £5 concs/students, FREE to children under 12 with a paying adult

The Trials and Triumphs of Oriana

This programme is intimate yet theatrical.
It centres around Thomas Morley’s madrigal collection of 1601, “The Triumphs of Oriana” uniquely arranged here for two voices with instrumental accompaniment.

The programme features three of these ‘Triumphs’ to represent the glorious public face of the Queen, but pitches these against the stark contrast of her private persona, her ‘Trials’, which are represented by lute songs and more internalised, emotional music.

This programme takes the audience on a journey, exploring the public and private sides to Elizabeth, the performers moving between three areas of the stage:a concert platform for the Triumphs, a domestic setting for the Trials, and a ‘throne’, reserved for the items that use Queen Elizabeth’s own words.

All this is achieved using only a series of chairs, meaning it is easily achievable, and adaptable.The programme celebrates the works of John Dowland in particular, while also introducing a brand new psalm setting and contemporary lute song by composer Fraser Wilson, that sets Elizabeth’s own words to music and explores jazz as well as historical influences.

Ensemble:

Penelope Appleyard – soprano

Angela Hicks – soprano

Sam Brown – lute

Harry Buckoke – viola da gamba