Helen and Toby close the Purbeck Arts Week Festival, with an extended version of their Battle Cry programme, looking in more detail at the music of Barbara Strozzi. The evening’s programme could easily have been called Lament, or Ohime (the Italian expression for ‘woe is me’, that will be heard more than once tonight). It’s safe to say that both Italy and England, and many nations in between, had something close to an obsession with female abandonment and lament in the 17 th century. The stories of women such as Dido and Ariadne have been told and re-told throughout history, as Greek myths and ancient tales dealt with the reality of war and high mortality rates on the women seen to be ‘left behind’ by male dominated storytelling. But does being left behind really mean being helpless, or is that just where a new adventure can start?

“These characters come alive in Charlston’s flexible mezzo, surely one of the most exciting voices in the new generation of British singers” Gramophone

Saturday 10th June / Church of St Edward, King & Martyr, Corfe Castle

TICKETs available directly from Purbeck Arts Week