Henry Purcell's chamber opera, Dido and Aeneas, is a pretty baroque piece, hailed as an English masterpiece and often performed by early music specialists.

I think even purists might agree it is a work piece, notable really for the final song - Dido's Lament - which never fails to raise the hairs on the back of my head.

So when I heard that Philip Pickett and his New London Consort had reconstructed a production from 1700, including added texts and scenes by John Eccles, the music director of the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre - where it was performed just once - I was intrigued.

To be honest, all it meant was instead of just waiting 40 minutes for the fabulous Lament, I had to wait about an hour and 55 minutes.

Julia Gooding's singing of the Lament was fabulous, raising hairs all over my body and putting that lump in my throat and tear in my eye which is the trademark of all tragic opera.

Indeed, the singing throughout was excellent and the music as good as you would expect from an ensemble of such talent and expertise.

There is, and has been for some years, an enduring trend among musicologists to go all out for authenticity, wanting us to hear the same sounds the composer would have heard.

This trend ignores and eschews modern orchestral instruments, as well as the fact today's audiences have heard the music of Mozart, Beethoven, Verdi and Puccini.

If the mould-breaking Mozart had not put real people in real situations into his operas, we would have remained listening to biblical tales and stories of mythical gods.

This extended Dido and Aeneas did not add much to the opera we know and love. There were some extended musical interludes and scenes of comedy and the supernatural which, in this semi-staged production, were a little heavy-handed.

And with no costumes and scenery, I found it difficult to engage with any of the characters. This so-called promenade performance, for which all the seats were sold, was also marred by a sparse number of prommers.

The production - hopefully plus costumes and scenery - is slated for a fully-staged performance in a Jonathan Miller production next year. That, given his track record, will be something really interesting.