ATHELHAMPTON House, one of the country’s most beautiful Tudor manors, is a perfect setting for Passamezzo – A Handful of Pleasant Delights, a programme of music, words and song illustrating aspects of life in Elizabethan England, on 30th September at 7.30pm.

The ancient house, with its beautiful garden and famous topiary trees, is on the outskirts of Puddletown, east of Dorchester. The concert is part of an ongoing series of events, musical, theatrical and for families.

With a nod to Shakespeare and Duke Orsino’s famous lament, “If music be the food of love …,” Passamezzo will take the audience from the Court to the country, the playhouse, the streets and the Church.

The programme includes lute songs, broadside ballads, theatre songs, madrigals, consort songs, instrumental divisions, masque music, sacred music and dance tunes, the programme includes music by Thomas Morley, Richard Edwards, William Byrd, John Dowland, Richard Allison and Daniel Bachiler, and words by George Peele, Ben Jonson, and Chidiock Tichborne.

There is limited seating for this performance, with maximum capacity for the venue limited at 82 audience members in total, so early booking is advised!