We close our season in customary fashion with the Wallingford-based ensemble, the Thames Consort, who, after last year’s concert of mainly sacred music, go distinctly secular with a concert performance of Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas, with mezzo-soprano, Elinor Carter singing the part of Dido, Lisa Gifford-Guy (soprano) as Belinda, her lady-in-waiting, joined by Rhian Davies (mezzo-soprano) as the Sorceress and Paulo Cerqueira (baritone) as Aeneas. First given in 1689, Purcell’s work is the first English language opera and charts the tragedy of Dido’s abandonment by Aeneas, plotted by the dastardly witches. There is plenty of colour and humour with a group of rustic sailors, a coven of witches and a ghostly spirit.

In the first half of the concert, we hear Purcell’s most popular ode: Come Ye Sons Of Art, written in 1694 to celebrate the birthday of Queen Mary II. This is one of the composer’s most appealing and tuneful scores, with an orchestra of strings, oboes and trumpets, containing such popular numbers as Sound The Trumpet and Bid The Virtues.