The 2008 edition of the Festival of Flanders - Bruges, Musica Antiqua - from now on MAfestival - focuses on some of the political aspects of early music in England. What was it that incited a prominent member of the Royal Chapel like William Byrd to compose almost 200 works in Latin, including several catholic masses, at a time when the Reformation of Queen Elisabeth did forbid it? What was the hidden agenda of Thomas Morley when he composed his Oriana madrigals? 'Long live Elisabeth'? Or indeed 'au contraire'? How did John Blow succeed, at the dawn of the English opera, to insert his Venus & Adonis into the ideas of nation building? And what did Bach and Abel have in common with freemasonry? These and other political questions are to be found within the diversified offer of concerts the 45th edition of the festival is proposing.

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