The Indian Queen is a rarely performed but intriguing opera by Henry Purcell (1659-1695), based on the play of the same name by John Dryden and Robert Howard. Purcell wrote a large part of his theatre music in the final years of his life. During those years, it was popular in London theatres to combine dramatic stories with music, dance, and spectacular sets—a kind of musical avant la lettre. The work contains a number of his most beautiful arias, such as the serene I Attempt from Love’s Sickness to Fly and the majestic hymn You Twice Ten Hundred Deities, music that makes the hearts of Baroque lovers beat faster.

The original story concerns the love between the Queen of Mexico (Zempoalla) and a mysterious Inca general and takes place during a war between the Incas and the Aztecs, two peoples who never actually met. BarokOpera Amsterdam places it in a contemporary context. Directed by the Brazilian Ligiana Costa, the gaps in this unfinished opera are filled with stories of South Americans who settled in the Netherlands, and their ancestors. Purcell’s Baroque music is enriched with music and indigenous sounds from Abya Yala, the indigenous name for the American continent.