In a new opera, Damon Albarn explores the life of Dr John Dee, 16th-century mathematician and adviser to Queen Elizabeth I
Dr Dee
Palace Theatre, Manchester International Festival, until 9 July
JOHN DEE, the 16th-century mathematician and occultist at the centre of Queen Elizabeth I’s court, has inspired some of the world’s greatest minds. Shakespeare evoked him as the enigmatic conjuror Prospero in The Tempest, while Christopher Marlowe created the power-hungry Doctor Faustus, who sold his soul to the devil for greater knowledge.
“Those are rather fantastical fictions,” says Rufus Norris, who is directing a new opera about Dee written by Damon Albarn. “But sometimes the…
