King Arthur

"Treating King Arthur as an example of its period is clearly the last thing that is on anybody's mind here. René Jacobs, at least, ought to know better ... Because what we are given here is a complete mis-match where the original plot is almost entirely overwritten with a nonsensical farrago ... The singers are not a very impressive bunch, either ... Nor does the playing of the orchestra do much to rectify the balance ... In the booklet Jacobs describes Purcell's score as "a far more dramatic piece than The Fairy Queen." Not here it isn't. This travesty does it no favours whatsoever, and I cannot imagine anyone except the most hardened fan of novelty for its own sake sitting through it with any degree of pleasure".

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"Musikhistoriens første musical, for Purcells musik fylder ikke slet så meget som Drydens vidtløftige tekst ... De obligate sangere ... er velvillig staffage ind imellem de afsindigt drevne skuespillere ... Under det imaginære hul i loftet er der et ægte krater, hvori dirigenten Nikolaus Harnoncourt og hans Concentus Musicus Wien residerer. Den gamle mand er vidunderligt uanfægtet af hele hurlumhejen ... Selv rækker han Purcells glansfulde musik op til de agerende med stringens og nerve".

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"There is some lovely singing from Barbara Bonney and Michael Schade, and a decent stab at the solo bass from Oliver Widmer; the other two female soloists, Isabel Rey and Birgit Remmert, are inadequate. Harnoncourt mainly follows tradition in his ordering of the musicla numbers".

"Hervé Niquet's knockabout rewrite of King Arthur is as much a tribute to Monty Python as it is to Henry Purcell. Purists beware ... But the laughter of the audience is the best review and it is hard to imagine that England's wittiest composer would have disapproved".

Vurdering (performance): 4/5.

Vurdering (picture & sound): 5/5.