BBC Music Magazine
March 2021
Recording of the Month

Opera
April 2021
Disc of the Month

Gramophone Magazine
April 2021
Editor's Choice

Record Review
30th January 2021
Record of the Week

Anna Dennis (Semele), Richard Burkhard (Jupiter), Helen Charlston (Juno), Aoife Miskelly (Ino), William Wallace (Athamas), Héloïse Bernard (Iris); Academy of Ancient Music Julian Perkins

The Academy of Ancient Music, Cambridge Handel Opera Company, Cambridge Early Music and Julian Perkins are proud to present the first professional recording of John Eccles’s Semele (c.1707), a notable early setting of the great English libretto by William Congreve better known in a version by GF Handel from 1744. The Academy of Ancient Music’s mission is to explore, reveal and preserve the great treasure house of baroque and classical music, and a spirit of newfound discovery runs through all our work. Eccles’s Semele is the next step on this journey, released here on 2 CDs in deluxe hardback presentation with an extensive accompanying full-colour booklet containing scholarly essays, Stephen Fry’s modern re-telling of the story, autograph manuscript images of Eccles’ score, the full libretto text and much more. A fascinating insight into how opera in England might have developed after Henry Purcell’s death had not Handel moved to London in 1712, Eccles’s Semele is the perfect addition to any baroque-music lover’s library.

"Cast, band, director and sound are all top-notch, restoring Eccles’s score to its full glory...Thanks to Perkins’s deft casting, each principal’s vocalism and dramatis persona are wonderfully matched...Charlston’s Juno flares magnificently, unafraid to sound ugly when furious...The Academy of Ancient Music’s playing is just as fascinating. Perkins directs from the harpsichord with a demonic intensity." - BBC Music Magazine, March 2021.