Masques and Triumphs: Music for the Restoration Theatre

The first of our Celebrating Leeds 400 performances and a return to the relaxed atmosphere of The Old Woollen at Sunny Bank Mills.

Leeds Baroque Orchestra present a programme of musical scenes from plays put on in London during the Restoration period. We feature music from The Tempest, including the Masque of Devils from Thomas Shadwell’s spectacular operatic version, with music by Matthew Locke, Pelham Humfrey and others, and songs from the early eighteenth-century setting by John Weldon, long attributed to Henry Purcell. There will also be music by Louis Grabu, John Eccles and Purcell, including the rarely performed Temple Scene from Bonduca (1695) and the hilarious Poet’s Scene from The Fairy Queen (1692).

Celebrating Leeds 400, we include pieces from a manuscript of Restoration theatre music now in Leeds City Library.