John Blow’s Venus & Adonis is often considered the first opera in English. Combining elements of Ovid, Shakespeare and the influences of 17th-century French opera, it creates a powerful dramatic retelling of a tale that charts the extreme states of love and grief when beautiful Adonis is gored to death by a boar.

The programme also includes Monteverdi’s epic Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda. In this groundbreaking work Monteverdi established the emotional codes for music that would dominate for a century or more.

Two new works by the winners of the National Centre for Early Music young composers award competition complement this programme where we explore the wonderful musical landscape in 17th Century Britain and its connections with the present.

This performance will be recorded for broadcast on BBC Radio 3.