Page 42 - Alison Balsom Quiet City FULL BOOK

it would be really cool to play it somewhere that didn’t feel like a
concert hall. I immediately thought of the Globe in London because

it’s a wooden, oval-shaped building. The stage is actually covered, so

the strings would be fine. But I just thought that the dramatic side of
this music shouldn’t be ignored. At the time, composers such as

Purcell knew exactly how to integrate drama and spectacle and all

sorts of other entertainment ideas. I then went to the artistic director of

the globe with my idea. I told him that it should be more than one

performance — perhaps two or three… And he said back to me,
“What if I give you the full company of actors and twenty

performances? And you find the money to pay the orchestra for the

whole summer.” So I basically worked harder than I had ever worked
in my entire life to raise money for that summer to pay for the whole

orchestra! But the experience was totally glorious. We had a few

previews which were half sold, but then we had the press night, and it
was so well-reviewed that it was completely sold out and packed for

the rest of the run, which was just the most satisfying thing ever!

It was impossible to describe what it was: it wasn’t a play, it wasn’t a

musical. All I could say was that it was just really expensive! But
somehow, the journalists and press had managed to put into words

what it was, and people then thought it sounded fun and decided to

go. And of course, I knew it could only fail so far because it had

amazing musicians, it had The English Concert, it had Trevor at the
helm, it had a great director, brilliant actors, a beautiful setting, and

Purcell and Handel! How far can you go wrong with that? Sam

Adamson wrote a very quirky, complicated set of tableaux to illustrate
seventeenth-century London through the prism of the trumpet. It was

a really unique project. People actually still ask me if I’ll do something

else like that, and they don’t understand that this was a one-off in my
life! But it was a wonderful way to celebrate the trumpet for people

who are not normally interested in the trumpet. The trumpet was a