Masques and Triumphs - Music for the Restoration Theatre

Leeds Baroque, directed by Peter Holman, perform music from the London Restoration stage on period instruments in the Long Gallery at Temple Newsam House. Tickets are £22, and free for students and young people, so it is worth bringing the family. A free pre-concert talk, “Music in the Restoration Theatre” by Prof Alan Howard of Cambridge University, starts at 2:00pm and is open to all ticket holders.

The programme takes in the Masque of Devils from Thomas Shadwell’s operatic version of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, the rarely performed Temple Scene from Bonduca (1695), and the drunken Poet’s Scene from The Fairy Queen (1692). For Leeds 400 it also includes pieces from a manuscript of Restoration theatre music held in Leeds City Library.