John Blow’s Venus and Adonis is his only work for music theatre. And that is actually a shame, since his often highly chromatic music for this tale of doomed love is charming, funny and poignant. Blow wrote this masque for the enjoyment of King Charles II. The piece, which premiered in 1683, became the model for Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. Before the interval Dunedin Consort will treat us to music by Lawes, Gibbons and contemporaries.