Performer: Faye Newton

A deep red hue lights the stage. It is St George’s day and King Arthur’s Britons are about to fight the invading Saxons. Centre stage, four soloists – Saxon priests – are gathered to perform sacred rites to ensure their victory. To the left of the stage a harpsichord plucks out a tune above a bass viol and theorbo, whilst to the right a spotlight falls on Merlin, who relates the story.

The symbolism of plants and images of the garden are abundant in medieval and renaissance art, and this evening’s Musicon concert by Jacob Heringman and Faye Newton celebrated not just the imagined gardens of Elizabethan poetry, but also a real garden.

A career woman, a femme fatale, a shop girl, an actor, a teacher, an idler, a biker, a priest, a bank clerk and five circus acrobats. These are not the figures that come to mind when we think of Purcell’s Fairy Queen.