In a sold-out Anselm Studio 1 on the Canterbury Christ Church University campus, we were taken back in time for – as the programme put it – a ‘Cornucopial Enticementation of Words by Mrs Aphra Behn with Musick by the finest Composers of her Age’. The evening included scenes and speeches from The Amorous Prince, The Rover, The Forc’d Marriage, The Widow Ranter, The Emperor of the Moon and Abdelazar, and music and song by, among others, John Blow, Giovanni Battista Draghi, John Weldon and Henry Purcell. The production was devised and directed by Dr Chris Price, CCCU’s Director of Music, and performed by professional musicians and singers alongside student actors and a staff and student choir. The programme provided a great tasting menu of Aphra’s work: funny, poignant, and still exciting nearly four centuries later.
