Pantagruel (renaissance ensemble):Ballads and ayres and from Elizabethan England

The Phantastical in cinema, art and literature is due in no small part to the Tudor monarchs. Henry VIII claimed to be a descendant of King Arthur, and Elizabeth I revelled in her image as Gloriana in ‘The Faerie Queen’. In 'Nymphidia', Pantagruel take the listener on a journey that begins with Christopher Marlowe’s "Come live with me and be my love", the ballad that introduced the idea of England’s idyllic pastoral image, and ends with supernatural songs from William Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’. The programme also includes a number of John Dowland’s finest compositions in honour of his 450th anniversary.

Anna Maria Wierod’s pure and vividly dramatic voice combined with Mark Wheeler and Paulina van Laarhoven on authentic reproductions of Tudor instruments - lutes, cittern, gitterns and viols - together produce a sound with verve and attitude that will take you back to the 16th century.