★★★★☆
In candlelight and darkness, moonlight and shadows, this English Touring Opera triple bill takes us into worlds filled with tortured souls. There are grapples with God, heartaches over lost love, questions about what it means to live and to die. Intense? Yes, but you’ll want to catch this show, not least for the striking Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas.
Everything here leads to this English masterpiece, the eight singers the same throughout. The opener is rare Carissimi. His Latin oratorio Jonas is a parable of sin and repentance, its mixture of restraint and drama reflected by Bernadette Iglich’s unfussy direction and Rory Beaton’s chiaroscuro lighting. It builds to an emotional outpouring. Just as Dido sings her great lament, Jonah prays for forgiveness, and the