This wasn’t, strictly, music theatre.  Harpsichordist/conductor Christopher Hogwood was given top billing on the poster (the image above is a ticket, believe it or not), but wasn’t playing or conducting, so any fans who showed up were probably a bit miffed.  Not that there was much for him to have done on stage anyway – the small amount of accompanying was handled perfectly well by Des Earley and Margaret Doris, and they didn’t need a conductor.  So why import such a big name?  If it was just a matter of giving Des and Margaret a few pointers on continuo playing then there are a few musicians closer to home who could have been as helpful.  The programmes had been locked away in another building, so it was all very mystifying….

The big concept, though, was using Handel’s duets in a theatrical setting.  From a century littered with abandoned plays, many of them gloriously obscene and provocative (in their own way), eX chose instead to take Alexander Pope’s dryly nuanced Rape of the Lock and vainly attempt to shed some exotic ‘new’ light on it.  The effect was certainly colourful – good sets, fabulous period costumes – clearly no expense spared.  The lines of the poem were divided between a company of half a dozen actors who filled out the stage very nicely.  Every so often, though, their acrobatics and games were interrupted by a pair of singers, dressed very grandly, who would glide on stage to perform a duet, before disappearing again.  Maybe there was some connection, but it eluded me.  The poor mezzo in particular, madly dressed as a Farinelli-inspired heroic castrato, looked and sounded quite lost, though the (non-Irish) soprano was admittedly very good.  All a bit silly really, which is a shame, though despite that it was still an intriguing show.