The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra and Brisbane-based performance company Circa are back to deliver a collaboration which mixes 16th and 17th-century music with acrobatics and contemporary circus. English Baroque with Circa is the third installment from the two companies, who previously teamed up to create the Helpmann award-winning performance French Baroque in 2015 and again in 2017 with Spanish Baroque to a sell-out crowd.
The dazzling combination of contemporary movement with 500-year-old English masque and theatre music will premiere at the Canberra International Music Festival before heading on to Sydney's City Recital Hall, arguably one of the only concert spaces in the city with acoustics superb enough to match the tumbling commotion on stage.
Artistic director Paul Dyer of the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra and Yaron Lifschitz of Circa have created an inspired pasticcio with works from English composers Henry Purcell, John Playford and John Dowland woven together into one piece. Celebrated soprano Jane Sheldon, who starred in The Howling Girls with the Sydney Chamber Orchestra in 2018, will be sharing the stage with Circa acrobats and the Brandenburg musicians.
Tickets start from $30, with $41 seats for under 30s. The Sydney season is only running for six shows before moving on around the country. If this performance is anything like the previous offerings from the duo, this daring collaboration will enchant from start to finish.