“It’s full of lively dances and arias and a few noisy, lip-smacking kisses…it fills a gap for students of the 18th-century English stage, but the commitment of these performers creates its own, wider pleasure.”
Fiona Maddocks, The Guardian

“Performed with zest and just the right blend of seriousness and farcical humour.”
BBC Radio 3 Record Review

“This uproarious send-up of Handelian operatic conventions (transposed to a Yorkshire village and complete with earthy local colloquialisms) works so well because both composer and cast demonstrate are so fully in command of the style that’s being satirised; Bevan and Carby have a riot with the coloratura cat-fight ‘Insulting gypsy, you’re surely tipsy’, whilst Wilde delivers the cod-heroics of ‘Dragon, to atoms I’ll tear thee’ (shades of Acis’s ‘Love sounds the alarm’ here) with just the right amount of tongue-in-cheek braggadocio.”
Presto Music Editor’s Choice

“The cast are all excellent, singing the music with wonderfully po-faced glee and plenty of Handelian style. There is no hint of send-up, and of course that is what makes it so much fun. The singers, instrumentalists and conductor are all able to well hold their own in genuine opera seria, and this stylistic confidence shines through here.”
Planet Hugill 4.5 stars

“In this premiere recording, conductor John Andrews shrewdly reserves buffoonery for Carey and Lampe’s antic scenes, heightening the galant elements of duets and ensembles, and giving performers space for arresting explorations of Lampe’s lyricism. In the showpiece ‘Gentle Knight’, soprano Mary Bevan gently wraps stunning ascending embellishments around the oboe’s melody. In the big lament aria, cellist Tatty Theo enriches the subtle articulation and rich timbres of mezzo-soprano Catherine Carby with her own. By contrast, tenor Mark Wilde as the knight and bass-baritone John Savournin as a squire and the dragon have great fun with the work’s excesses, Wilde prefacing his runs with vulgar gulps and Savournin growling absurdly.”
BBC Music Magazine, Opera and Editor’s Choice, 5 *s

“What a surprise! This comic opera, popular in its day, has been languishing as a passing reference in the history books. Now it has been brought to life in this excellent performance by The Brook Street Band under John Andrews.”
Gramophone Magazine, Editor’s Choice

“With sunny support from the brilliant Brook Street Band and John Andrews’s insouciant direction, this is a Dragon’s dish to savour”
Opera Magazine