England, My EnglandThe Story Of Henry Purcell
Susan Graham, Stephen Varcoe, Lynne Dawson, Nancy Argenta, James Bowman and Michael Chance The Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner. Directed by Tony Palmer Tony Palmer directs this unique film drama about the great English composer Henry Purcell. Very little is known about his life, but the script, by Charles Wood and the late John Osborne, solves this problem by launching a group of actors in the 1960s on a voyage of discovery into the 1660s & late-17th century England, the extraordinary period in which Purcell lived.
The all-star cast includes Michael Ball, Simon Callow, Corin Redgrave, Letitia Dean, John Shrapnel, Robert Stephens and many other well-known names. But it is Purcell’s music which is the driving force of this dramatisation, with a stunning soundtrack performed by a line-up of superb artists such as Susan Graham, Stephen Varcoe, Lynne Dawson, Nancy Argenta, James Bowman and Michael Chance. The Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists are conducted by John Eliot Gardiner. “Looks and sounds like a masterpiece - wonderful to hear as it is to behold. Overwhelming...it will blow you out of your seat.” The Australian “What this time-travelling fantasy has to do with the music of Henry Purcell, you will discover in the course of 153 very long minutes. As the camera pans across the years of the Plague, through executions and Pope-burning, it connives in the time-worn fallacy of linking musical affect with historical chronicle, confusing and misleading the listener.” BBC Music Magazine, November 2007 ** |
