Purcell's Finest Verses

Join La Nuova Musica for Purcell's Finest Verses, a beautifully filmed concert-come-documentary featuring some of the UK's most loved and critically-acclaimed musicians.

The programme is a selection of Henry Purcell's songs including If Music Be The Food of Love, The Sparrow and the Dove and many more.

The soloists are Andy Staples (tenor) and Tim Mead (countertenor), and the La Nuova Musica ensemble is directed by David Bates.

Watch the trailer:

About the artists

David Bates opens his 2020/21 season with a new production of Handel’s Il Trionfo del tempo e del disinganno for Staatsoper Hannover. Marking his debut with the company, the opera is directed by Elisabeth Stöppler, featuring Sarah Brady, Sunnyboy Dladla, Nina van Essen, and Nicholas Tamagna in its cast. Further ahead, his opera plans include his debut with Komische Oper and Opera Rouen Normandie.

Counter-tenor Tim Mead is praised for his “alluring” and “consistently excellent” interpretations (New York Times). With his “rich, mellifluous sound” (Guardian), he is recognised as one of the finest across the generations of counter-tenors.

Andrew Staples is considered by many to be one of the most versatile British singers. A favourite for works by Handel, Mozart and Britten, he has also made his mark singing Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius, Verdi’s Requiem and Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde. He sings regularly with Simon Rattle, Daniel Harding and Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and with orchestras such as the Berliner Philharmoniker, Wiener Philharmoniker, Swedish Radio Orchestra, Bayerischer Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and the London Symphony Orchestra. In opera he is a regular guest at the Royal Opera House where he has sung Tamino (Die Zauberflöte), Flammand (Capriccio), Narraboth (Salome) and Artabenes (Arne’s Artaxerxes) and he also appears in Salzburg, Hamburg, Brussels and Prague.