When The Fairy Queen premiered in 1692, it was as a series of masques interspersed between the acts of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

These days, Purcell's 'half-opera' tends to be presented minus the Shakespearean content thus removing much of the piece's theatrical raison d'tre.

Though it shares some of the Dream's themes it has no narrative sense of its own.

Thomas Guthrie, whose production visited the Festival last week, sought to solve the piece's staging problems by setting it in a lunatic asylum.

The ploy worked to an extent but could not disguise the more gimmicky characteristics of this 'modern fusion of opera, puppetry, dance and aerial acrobatics'.

For example, James Frith and Lisa Whitmore's trapeze work was breathtaking but had nothing to do with anything going on below. However, aided by the Orchestra of the Baroque, the Armonico Consort did justice to Purcell's glories.

Highlights included Elin Manahan Thomas's rendition of See The Night, Kevin Kyle and Timothy Travers-Brown's angelic duet Pipes And Clarions and the entire cast uniting in robust harmony on They Shall Be As Happy.