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ENSEMBLE INFO

Ensemble Contact:

Email:

nicolaoboe@gmail.com

2016

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

‘King Arthur, or the European Worthy’:
Istante Collective is planning to stage two performances of Henry Purcell’s masque ‘King Arthur’ during the 11th Baroquestock Festival in May 2026. After 10 years focusing our energies on neglected repertoire, we feel we have built a solid audience base that will respond positively to us offering our distinctive interpretation of more mainstream works. Staging a Purcell production will also naturally build upon our exploration of 17th-Century operatic repertoire in France and England, through our previous productions of Blow’s ‘Venus and Adonis’ and Lully’s ‘La Naissance de Venus’ in the 2024 Festival. We feel that Purcell’s music is especially representative of our eclectic background and development as an ensemble, as he was able to create a unique synthesis of a variety of European musical influences from France and Italy, producing a style which is both international and quintessentially English. We are convinced that a contemporary reading of King Arthur in this light will also offer a vehicle to overcome some of the challenges in staging a text which is specifically grounded in a late-17th-Century British context, both in terms of political allegory and nationalistic sentiment. We plan to present a historically curated performance at 392Hz in the informal, accessible environment of Heath Street Baptist Church. Both performances will be preceded by a pre-performance talk with Dr. Alessandra Palidda from Manchester University. Our regular stage director Natalie Coury aims to achieve a production which honours the textual and dance elements of the masque, which are often overlooked in solely musical performances, but are key to its artistic identity. To achieve this we also plan to include a solo contemporary dancer and an actor who will recite a selection from Dryden’s spoken text. We have received direct interest from one of our audience supporters to stage this production, with a significant offer of sponsorship (as seen in the budget). Continuo Foundation’s additional support would be critical giving us the possibility to engage an external music director, which would greatly impact our musical development and artistic network. We are currently in contact with several directors including Laurence Cummings, Cristian Curnyn, Tom Foster while we wait for our funding to be finalised. We also wish to further develop a core vocal ensemble by engaging Hera Protopapas, Mariana Rodrigues, Max Robbions and Harrison Gantion, who were part of our successful Falstaff cast. Istante would also like to take the opportunity offered by this project to develop its external collaborations and audience reach beyond London, as more mainstream repertoire proves to be financially more viable in this context. Should our application be successful, we have made arrangements to collaborate with the ensemble Manchester Baroque, as well as developing our ongoing partnership with the Surrey Bach Festival

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