THE 2016 York Early Music Festival has opened, marking the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death with a theme of Fairies, Witches and Aerial Beings.

Running from July 8 to 16, the programme is focusing on music from the Elizabethan and Jacobean theatres and pieces inspired by the Shakespearean themes of magic, mystery and the supernatural.

Already, The Press has previewed the first four days of the festival and the NCEM Platform Artists programme for burgeoning young musicians, and now attention turns to the last four days, not least one of the the centrepiece concerts on July 13: the York Baroque Soloists performing Henry Purcell's 1692 semi-opera The Fairy Queen, directed by Peter Seymour in the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall at the University of York. Among the soloists will be soprano Bethany Seymour and bass Matthew Brook and the narrator will be Jason Darnell. An interview with Peter Seymour will appear in next Thursday's What's On.

Bethany Seymour and Peter Seymour, this time at the harpsichord, return for a second concert on July 14 at the York Guildhall, where they will be joined by bass Thomas Guthrie for Where The Bard Lurks, Shakespeare In Music, from 2pm to 3pm. Music played an important role in Shakespeare's plays, and while few of the original songs have survived with their music, the words have inspired countless settings and textual reworkings through the ages. This programme presents 17th century settings by the likes of Morley, Purcell and Eccles and 18th century songs by Arne, Haydn and Addison.

Later that day, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment present The Tempest, A "Dramatick Opera" at the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall at 6.30pm under the musical direction of lutenist Elizabeth Kenny and stage direction of Caroline Williams, with soprano Katy Watson, tenor Sam Boden and bass Fraser Scott as the soloists.

After performances in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare's Globe, this fascinating score is being brought to York, where it will be enhanced by dramatic interludes from the play. This "dramatick opera" is a bastardised version from 1674 re-worked for maximum appeal to Restoration audiences.

The performance will be preceded by Caroline Williams, from Shakespeare's Globe, and Elizabeth Kenny exploring the conflicting demands of text and music and how they can be made to work together in Restoration Shakespeare, A Musical Adaptation of The Tempest, in the Ryder Auditorium at the University of York from 5.30pm to 6pm.

The City Musick, directed by William Lyons, will perform not one, but two concerts, the first on July 15 at 7.30pm in the Merchant Adventurers' Hall, in Fossgate. In Silver Sounds and Moody Food Music for Six Severall  Instruments, they examine the music for private playhouse and public theatre that the English or 'Broken' Consort of instruments would have played with songs and instrumental music from Shakespeare, Marston, Dekker, Jonson and their contemporaries.

The festival will conclude with The City Musick's second concert, this one at the National Centre for Early Music, in Walmgate, on July 16 from 6pm to 7pm. In The Topping Tooters Of The Town, they will present music of The London Waits 1550-1600, a concert of music for ceremony, civic procession, sophisticated masques and the theatre, as well as popular dances and songs for performance in a taverns and communal halls.

The full programme is at ncem.co.uk/yemf; tickets are on sale through that website and on 01904 658338.