The Faithful Shepherdess

Ceruleo, early music ensemble

In this programme, Ceruleo explore the themes of love and loss in The Faithful Shepherdess, interspersing extracts from Fletcher’s play with music from Monteverdi’s Seventh Book of Madrigals and his contemporaries, including Notari, Frescobaldi, Rossi and Luzzaschi.

John Fletcher’s The Faithful Shepherdess was premiered in 1608 and is the first example of Fletcher’s influential definition of tragicomedy. The tale’s heroine is Clorin, a virgin shepherdess and skilled healer who lives in solitude near the grave of her first love. During the course of the play various couples are thrown into emotional turmoil and Clorin heals and reconciles them.

£20 (early bird) / £25

Ceruleo
Early music ensemble

Taking communication, collaboration and experimentation as the basis to grow as a group, Ceruleo create dramatic programmes using spoken text alongside music for two sopranos and continuo. Every member of the group performs as a soloist, and Ceruleo use all available combinations of instruments and voices to create innovative and captivating performances.

Ceruleo formed in November 2014 at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and made their debut at the Barbican Centre, London thanks to the Institute of Musical Research. They were Brighton Early Music Festival’s Early Music Live! scheme participants for 2015/16, which saw them appear as part of the Brighton Early Music Festival 2015 alongside leading Educational Workshops in local schools. Ceruleo have performed their ‘Passion and Seduction’ programme in the London Festival of Baroque Music at St John’s Smith Square, in the Antiqua 2016 series in Accademia del Ricercare, Italy and as part of the Oudemusiek Fringe Festival, Utrecht.

Ceruleo gave several performances of their ‘Deplorable Fire’ programme commemorating the 350th Anniversary of the Great Fire of London during Autumn 2016. Venues included Fenton House, St Martin-in-the-Fields and St Olave’s, Hart Street. They also collaborated with the Museum of London, giving concerts and workshops in their ‘Fire! Fire!’ exhibition as well as performing live on BBC Radio 3’s ‘In Tune’.

Ceruleo were delighted to be Artist Fellows at The Guildhall School for 2016/17. Recent performance highlights include concerts for the City Music Society in February 2017, the London Handel Festival in March and at St Peter’s Wallingford in May as part of the Brighton Early Music Festival Promoters Scheme. In July 2017, Ceruleo premiered ‘Rival Queens’; an immersive operatic experience at Handel and Hendrix in London, in collaboration with stage director Thomas Guthrie, which they reprised in May 2018. 2017 also saw performances of ‘Paradise Lost’ at The Courthald Gallery, London and the Folkestone Literature Festival.

Ceruleo’s latest project, the Arts Council England funded ‘Burying the Dead‘, a staged show about Henry Purcell written by the scriptwriter Clare Norburn, began in May 2018. They have performed at Festivals including the Stroud Green Early Music Festival, Buxton International Festival and Lake District Summer Music, and future performances include Baroque at the Edge at LSO St Luke’s and the York Early Music Christmas Festival in 2019.

To find out more please visit www.ceruleo.co.uk