Damon and his Doctor

Every year the city of Manchester hosts an international arts festival which is remarkable for consisting entirely of premieres, many of them quite high-profile and therefore high-risk. Last night I went with my son to Damon Albarn's "English Opera" about Dr John Dee, the remarkable Elizabethan magician and mathematician who was, many believe, the prototype of Shakespeare's Prospero and Marlowe's Faustus.

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