FAIREST ISLE FESTIVAL
programme
10-12 MAY 2024
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Day 1 - Friday 10 May
Guided Walking Tour
Ventnor Botanic Garden -‘A Botanic Garden for the 21st Century’.
Enjoy a fabulous walking tour by Curator Chris Kidd who will highlight the stunning gardens located within the unique micro-climate of the Ventnor Undercliff. Overlooked by tall cliffs to the North and the English Channel to the South, its climate is more akin to the Mediterranean. The Garden is unrivalled for its collections of subtropical plants grown unprotected out of doors.
VBG aims to present an immersive experience where the visitor is transported to landscapes from around the world. There’s an impressive collection of succulents and cacti, including huge spiky agaves and flowering aloes. Sun-loving herbs, giant echiums, vibrant bedding plants and mature palm trees thrive here, as do many colourful South African treasures, Australian eucalyptus, bottlebrushes, tree ferns, and much more.
Information
Free parking for tour visitors – with check-in screen in reception. Before or after, enjoy delicious home-made cakes and light bites available in the Plantation Cafe.
Venue
Ventnor Botanic Garden
Undercliff Drive, Ventnor, PO38 1UL
Friday 10 May 3 pm and 4 pm: Walking Tour 1 (45 minutes, max 30 visitors)
Ticket £15
Double Double, Toil & Trouble
Palisander
The festival opens with a delightful programme of music from the multi-virtuosic recorder consort Palisander, ‘Early Music’s very own Spice Girls’ – with inspirations from the Magic Island!
Throughout the ages, music and magic have been closely linked. With music by J.S.Bach and Hildegard von Bingen alongside renaissance consort music and contemporary works, the performance explores the historic relationship between music and the magical spectrum: maths, philosophy, nature, religion and the occult! Historical accounts and medieval spells mix with choreography for a unique event, not to be missed.
Palisander is famous for its imaginative, historical programmes, performing largely from memory, on recorders from 6 inches to 6 feet tall.
Friday 10 May 7.30pm – 8.30pm
Venue
St Catherine’s Church, 11 Church St, Ventnor PO38 1SW
Ticket Price £15
Concession £10 for one parent and school student (attending earlier schools concert)
(unreserved seating)
Toccata and Fugue
Nightmare Concerto
Day 2 - saturday 11 May
WORKSHOP
‘Come and Sing’ Vivaldi Gloria and informal performance with Barokksolistene
Soloists: Rowan Pierce and Ciara Hendrick
A Vivaldi Gloria Come & Sing is not new but it’s rare to do it with two top soloists (Rowan Pierce – the voice behind the opera singer in Netflix’s Bridgerton) and Ciara Hendrick, Sunday night’s Sorceress! Even better to have the festival’s resident band – Barokksolistene – who will drop in to play at the run-through, before their evening Alehouse Sessions.
Festival director Robert Hollingworth will conduct: it’ll be a fun morning, and the piece is still good, no matter how many times you’ve sung it before! If you’re new to the work, you’ll get lots of guidance and support - or just come along and listen to the rehearsal and enjoy the informal performance.
Information
Vocal score provided on loan – free of charge
Venue
St John’s Church, St John’s Road, Newport PO30 1LN
Saturday 11 May 9.30 am - 1 pm: (Doors open from 9 a.m)
Tickets £15
Heritage Talk
Professor David Tomalin
’Island Baroque - Insularity and Inspiration’
‘In the sanctuary of an island, science, sentiment and a topping of scandal can be an intoxicating tonic while the musical rapture moves on…‘
From the heart of the Roman island of Vectis (now Wight), Professor David Tomalin leads us to an early episode of philosophical and scientific enlightenment - long concealed in the iconography of Wight’s villa mosaics. He then juxtaposes that ‘Age of Reason’ when antiquarian interest re-awakens in Wight during the 17th and 18th centuries. Here, a beam of Baroque enlightenment invigorates some surprising hopes and antics within an offshore population ever protective of its insularity.
Your ticket to this fascinating talk is also a raffle prize – with the chance to win a copy of Roman Vectis: past and present identity in the Isle of Wight described by Dr Tracy Borman, Curator of the Royal Palaces, as ‘impeccably researched and vividly illustrated, it is a must for anyone wishing to explore the island’s rich history’.
Saturday 11 May 3 pm - 4.30 pm
Venue
Newport Methodist Church, Quay Street, Newport PO30 5BA
Ticket Price £7.50
WORKSHOP
Learn to sing a Sea Shanty!
It doesn’t get much better than learning to sing famous Island Sea Shanties overlooking the River Medina. Led with gusto by local group, Brighstone Barnacles, with song sheets provided by IOW Music Hub, it’s going to be a super-salty sing-along!
Come early to enjoy delicious Island home-made cakes in the café (available until 5pm). Doors for the workshop open at 5pm. Bar available 5pm – 6.10pm.
Saturday 11 May 5.30 pm – 6.30 pm
Venue
Quay Arts, 15 Sea Street, Newport PO30 5BD
Ticket Price £15
Alehouse Sessions
Barokksolistene
Experience a festival sensation as we present Europe’s hottest early music act, the wild Scandinavian Alehouse Boys and dive into the sublime but also funky world of Henry Purcell in a raucous 17th Century tavern setting. Imagine yourselves in a London where the puritanical Oliver Cromwell has closed the theatres. He has also declared all stage players who dare to try to exercise their craft to be “incorrigible rogues”. What do all the out-of-work actors and musicians do? Go to the pub, of course! Inspired by history, Bjarte Eike and the Alehouse Boys (and girls!) bring us a show straight from the alehouse – with a heady mix of sea shanties, dance tunes, folk ballads and music for the stage. There may even be a friendly scuffle!
Bar opens at 7pm. Feel free to take a hearty ale into the theatre to get into the spirit of the show!
Saturday 11 May 8 pm
Venue
Medina Theatre, Fairlee Road, Newport PO30 2EW
Ticket Price £22.50
Concessions (u18s) £17.50
Sunday 12 May - FESTIVAL FINALE
Dido & Aeneas
Barokksolistene
Dido: Mary Bevan
Aeneas: Frederick Long
Belinda: Rowan Pierce
Sorceress: Ciara Hendrick
SECOND WitCH: Tania Murphy
Director: Robert Hollingworth
The Festival finale is one of the opera world’s super hits: Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell. The story evolves around the fateful encounter between Queen Dido and the hero Aeneas. Both mighty and powerful, as humans they are also vulnerable and easy targets for the will of the gods. The opera’s highlight is the divine aria “Dido’s lament”, but there is so much more to enjoy: dances, witches’ choruses and a cheeky sailor.
Don’t miss this team of fabulous soloists led by Mary Bevan (fresh from operatic success in Rome) and world-class Purcell experts, Barokksolistene – conducted by the festival’s Artistic Director, Robert Hollingworth.
Sunday 12 May 4.30 pm
Venue
All Saints, Ryde, Queen’s Road, Ryde, PO33 3BG
Ticket Price £18