Purcell: King Arthur

"What ho! Thou genius of this isle, what ho! Liest thou asleep beneath those hills…?" There have been many retellings of the legend of King Arthur, but none more entertaining – or ravishing – than Purcell and Dryden's enchanting "semi-opera" of 1691. A sumptuous pageant of music and visuals, it demands a supremely imaginative staging, and that's precisely what it receives in Sven-Eric Bechtolf and Julian Crouch's riotous, spectacular 2017 production for the Staatsoper in Berlin. Critics were dazzled – and with René Jacobs conducting a hand-picked cast, the musical performance, too, is as inspired as it is idiomatic.