"The ensemble played with style and energy, their continuo-rich textures coloured by a good variety of instruments... Darbourne kept a tight ship, the orchestra sighed and swayed in tandem with the action on stage"
✭✭✭✭✭ Opera Now (2025), Le Carnaval de Venise, The Vache
"... the highest standard of historically informed performance... an exceptional evening."
✭✭✭✭ The Observer (2025), Out of the Deep, Smith Square Hall
"... the HGO orchestra conducted by Jonathan Darbourne deliver[s] marvellously"
LondonTheatre1 (2025), La Cenerentola, Jackson's Lane Theatre
"Darbourne conducted a good-sized band... with great feeling for the variety of Pergolesi’s music, an Italian version of that interregnum between baroque and full-blown classical style"
Opera Now (2024), L'Olimpiade, The Vache
"Everything about them [Vache Baroque], not least the direction, shone."
Church Times (2024), ROSSI400, Smith Square Hall
" ... the well-sprung, sensitive playing of an instrumental ensemble led by Jonathan Darbourne."
* * * * The Stage (2021), Acis and Galatea, The Vache
"Led from the harpsichord by Darbourne, the instrumentalists communicated joy in their playing without compromising grace or precision... they brought Purcell's dance rhythms captivatingly to life."
Opera Magazine (2020), Dido and Aeneas, The Vache
