Leader, J. Mouland Begbie
Conductor, Ian Whyte
Berlioz's brilliant little comic opera Beatrice and Benedict, based on Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, was produced with great success on August 9, 1862, the occasion that marked the opening of a new theatre at Baden. According to the French biographer, Adolphe Jullien , ' the eminently classical overture is based on two salient motives of the opera-a magnificent phrase a la Gluck, taken from the music of Beatrice, and a graceful piece of badinage, in triple measure, sung by Beatrice and Benedict as an epilogue.'