16 June 2012
St Michael le Belfrey, York
7.30 pm ends (c.10 pm)
Tickets £20 (£18)
Purcell - Dioclesian
Can the footsoldier really become emperor?
Purcell's Diocles is loosely based on the
Roman
emperor Diocletian.
with Yorkshire Baroque Soloists
Purcell’s 1690 semi-opera, Dioclesian, is among his greatest compositions which remained popular well into the 18th century although seldom heard complete. Certainly it contains some of his best-known and most spectacular music with a colourful orchestra of oboes, recorders, trumpets and strings. The longest and most important scene of the semi-opera is the final masque, ostensibly performed to welcome Diocles into rural retirement, but actually a self-contained, through-composed pastoral. We meet Cupid, Jove, a boisterous trio of Baccanalians, a sensual shepherd and his lass and have the great Chaconne to conclude. In this performance the musical items are linked by a narration specially prepared by Andrew Pinnock, secretary of the Purcell Society and a regular collaborator with YBC and YBS in this repertoire.
