It was the horses that did it. In the opening scene of Dunelm Consort and Players’ King Arthur, three men, robed in white surplices solemnly held aloft stuffed toy sacrifices to Woden, Thor and Freya and signalled that we were in for a very silly evening.
Like the better-known Fairy Queen, King Arthur sits somewhere between being a full opera and being incidental music for a play, with the musical numbers coming in between spoken dialogue – in this case by John Dryden. In another excellent Dunelm programme note, Iona Bastin and Barney Howard explained that this was a particularly English genre, known as ‘the Dramatick Opera’: London audiences had to wait for Handel to convert them to the idea of fully-sung Italian opera.
The plot too is loaded with English sentiment, as King Arthur and Merlin see off invaders from the continent and praise the glories of their native isle. Dryden’s play was full of allusions to the politics of the time with the perennial wars with France lurking in the background and was probably taken a good deal more seriously than this production, which raised a wry eyebrow at the whole thing and definitely had a few hints of Monty Python’s Holy Grail about it.
Although we got a flavour of Dryden with his original prologue, delivered splendidly by the evening’s narrator, Revd. Canon Michael Hampel, the rest of the narrative was provided succinctly by Canon Hampel in his own words, with witty asides and local colour. The production itself was semi-staged with bits of props and costumes, including the horses (although sadly no pythonesque coconut shell hoof noises).
Musically, there was not a weak link across the ensemble. Conducted by Barney Howard, the orchestra were stylish and full of character; the dances and musical interludes were all a delight. Across a strong woodwind section, I particularly enjoyed Jonas Flohr and Amelia Arwan’s crisply articulated recorders. The recognisably Purcellian trumpet tunes in the military scenes were excellent but one of the loveliest bits of music was Bronwen Roberts’ lyrical trumpet solo in the Act 5 Symphony, introducing the natural wonders of the British Isles without any help needed from Mr Attenborough.
The central characters themselves don’t sing, and instead we get a cast of various magical and allegorical figures, shepherds, priests, soldiers and a motley crew of English drunks. The Dunelm Consort continued their practice of sharing the solos across the entire consort with all nineteen singers taking a role.
One of the highlights of the evening was Act III, a diversionary scene where Cupid melts the spell of ‘Cold Genius’ to demonstrate the power of love. Josephine Sim as Cupid was delightfully light and flirtatious, vocally and dramatically, twirling playfully around the stage and handing out rose-tinted spectacles to chorus, audience and orchestra. Opposite her, James Gordon was in magnificent voice, investing Cold Genius with power and drama in some of the best singing of the evening.
Sofia Gironi and Zara Gathercole were both voices I hadn’t heard before and I enjoyed their well-matched and seductive intertwinings as the sirens in ‘Two daughters of this aged stream’. Sofia Gironi also sang the biggest hit from King Arthur, ‘Fairest Isle’ and it was fun to hear this lovely song in context. It follows a raucous drinking song, delivered with gusto and lots of character by Michael Bell, Matthew Dodd, Ben Glover and Fabian Tindale Geere (and I wondered what Canon Hampel made of the song’s disdain for clergy who preach so long that the Sunday lunch gets burnt). Like the soprano in Messiah who has to sing ‘I know that my Redeemer liveth’ after the uproar of Hallelujah, the soloist for ‘Fairest Isle’ has to draw everything in after the mayhem to create a moment of stillness and Sofia Gironi brought it off beautifully.
Dunelm Consort and Players well deserved their large and appreciative audience and it was nice to see a good mixture of students and local people supporting this concert (not least because I had a very sociable time bumping into lots of people I know). Although, for various reasons, I actually went without intending to write a review, it was just too good not to share with those who weren’t fortunate enough to be there. Congratulations too to Iona Bastin and Barney Howard who, alongside all the work of putting on this production also somehow found time to edit a brand new performing score which received its premiere this evening.
Dunelm Consort and Players: King Arthur by Henry Purcell
Thursday 7 May 2026, The Great Hall, Durham Castle
