I performed the clarino part in the opening Toccata, playing the natural trumpet (without holes) with players from the English Cornett and Sackbutt Ensemble. We performed a trumpet consort rendition of the Toccata from the back of St. John’s Smith Square, at the top of the spiral staircase. During the second time through (an on-stage orchestral version) the five trumpeters walked onto the stage to play a forward-facing version with the full orchestra. We left the stage to sonorous strings and the equally gorgeous sound of Rachel Ambrose-Evans as Euridice singing the emotive opening, beginning 'Dal mio Permesso amato...'

Glowing from an utterly glorious #Monteverdi L'Orfeo with @ifagiolini complete with sackbuts & cornetti pic.twitter.com/r6fGyTs4g1

— Jim Clifford OBE (@Clifford_Jim) May 18, 2017

This was the first of three performances scheduled for 2017; Purbeck and Cheltenham will host the subsequent ones. We had previously performed L’Orfeo in the Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista in Venice (November 2015). It was a very memorable experience. With my fairly limited role in the proceedings, I was able to take several photographs and I was delighted to see that one of my photographs of the whole group had been used in the festival brochure.