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Bellot Ensemble joins New Sussex Opera at Devonshire Park Theatre in Eastbourne for a fully staged production of Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s David and Jonathan, performed in Christopher Cowell’s new English translation.

First performed in Paris in 1688, David and Jonathan is a biblical tragedy set in a world at war. Love and duty collide as David, Jonathan and Saul are caught in a destructive web of desire, politics and paranoia. Charpentier’s achingly beautiful score is sensuous and dancelike by turns, moving from intimate laments and dances to vivid choruses and orchestral colour.

The opening fanfare of Charpentier’s Te Deum is familiar as the signature for Eurovision broadcasts. David and Jonathan reveals a darker and more intimate side of one of the major composers of seventeenth century France, bringing this rarely staged jewel of the French Baroque to audiences in London and the South East for the first time.

The production reunites the creative team behind New Sussex Opera’s acclaimed productions of The Silver Bell and The Dragon of Wantley, and marks Bellot Ensemble’s second collaboration with the company. Bellot Ensemble is the BBC Radio 3 New Generation Baroque Ensemble.

The production also features singers from New Sussex Opera’s Chalk Cliff Trust Emerging Artists programme.

Running time: approximately 2 hours 30 minutes, including one interval.

Cast and creative team

David: Harun Ellis Tekin
Jonathan: Tom Lilburn
Saul: Massimo Modoni
Achis and Samuel: Daniel Chomiak
The Witch: Nadiia Chaichenko
Joabel: Alex Aldren

Bellot Ensemble
New Sussex Opera Chorus

Conductor: Toby Purser
Director: Paul Higgins
English translation: Christopher Cowell
Designer: Mollie Cheek
Lighting design: Daisy Hardwick
Choreographer: Namiko Gahier-Ogawa
Dramaturg: Benjamin Poore

Tickets: £28, £36 and £42. Students and children half price.

For access requirements, please contact the box office before booking.