Dr Dee is exquisitely staged, masterfully scored, painstakingly researched and beautifully performed.
But unless you are properly prepared, you will not fully appreciate it.
Damon Albarn's 90-minute operatic musical will wash over you in a very pleasant way. You will marvel at the exquisite blend of modern and Elizabethan music, as well as the most imaginative use of corrugated cardboard probably ever seen on stage. But in terms of understanding, it might just as well have been performed in Esperanto.
So do your research before you go. But to help you, here are the basics. Dr Dee was a Tudor mathematician, astronomer, cartographer, philosopher, alchemist, courtier and spy. And a confidant of Queen Elizabeth I. He cracked enemy codes for her and helped defeat the Spanish Armada. He also had an unhealthy interest in the occult.
Damon Albarn, of Blur fame, has collaborated with director Rufus Norris on the show, which had its world premiere as part of the Manchester International Festival and will later transfer to London.
Albarn has a musical narrator role, singing and playing guitar and harmonium. There is a sweet, haunting melancholy to the music, with a band playing an eclectic mix of Renaissance-era wind instruments. They are housed in what looks like a Portakabin, that rises during the performance from stage level to way above, with Albarn perched precariously over the action.
Musically it is stunning, and visually too. The entire stage is filled with numbers and formulae as Dee (Bertie Carvel) delivers an impassioned maths lecture, while Elizabeth makes a majestic entrance, cloaked in gold.
It will dazzle you - just don't let it baffle you, too.
www.manchesterpalace.org.uk
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