"Among Purcell's most notable works are his opera ""Dido and Aeneas"" (1688), his semi-operas ""Dioclesian"" (1690), ""King Arthur"" (1691), ""The Fairy-Queen"" (1692) and ""Timon of Athens"" (1695), as well as the compositions ""Hail! Bright Cecilia"" (1692), ""Come Ye Sons of Art"" (1694) and ""Funeral Sentences and Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary"" (1695). After his death, Purcell was honoured by many of his contemporaries, including his old friend John Blow, who wrote ""An Ode, on the Death of Mr. Henry Purcell (Mark how the lark and linnet sing)"" with text by his old collaborator, John Dryden. William Croft's 1724"
"performed. It is occasionally considered the first genuine English opera, though that title is usually given to Blow's ""Venus and Adonis"": as in Blow's work, the action does not progress in spoken dialogue but in Italian-style recitative. Each work runs to less than one hour. At the time, ""Dido and Aeneas"" never found its way to the theatre, though it appears to have been very popular in private circles. It is believed to have been extensively copied, but only one song was printed by Purcell's widow in ""Orpheus Britannicus"", and the complete work remained in manuscript until 1840, when it"
"(1680) and eight songs for Thomas d'Urfey's ""A Fool's Preferment"" (1688). He also composed songs for two plays by Nahum Tate (later the librettist of Dido and Aeneas), ""The Sicilian Usurper"" (1680) and ""Cuckold-Haven"" (1685). ""Dido and Aeneas"" was Purcell's first (and only) all-sung opera and derives from the English masque tradition. Originally based on Nahum Tate's play ""Brutus of Alba, or The Enchanted Lovers"" (1678), the opera is likely, at least to some extent, to be allegorical. The prologue refers to the joy of a marriage between two monarchs, which could refer to the marriage between William and Mary."
"the Trojan hero Aeneas, and her despair when he abandons her. A monumental work in Baroque opera, ""Dido and Aeneas"" is remembered as one of Purcell's foremost theatrical works. It was also Purcell's only true opera, as well as his only all-sung dramatic work. One of the earliest known English operas, it owes much to John Blow's ""Venus and Adonis"", both in structure and in overall effect. The influence of Cavalli's opera ""Didone"" is also apparent. Before ""Dido and Aeneas,"" Purcell had composed music for several stage works, including nine pieces for Nathaniel Lee's ""Theodosius, or The Force of Love"""
"However, according to the musicologist Bruce Wood, in his 2008 critical edition of the work for the Purcell Society, the librettist ""has been identified by James Winn as Anne Kingsmill, subsequently married as Anne Finch"". The story is based on the Classical myth of Venus and Adonis, which was also the basis for Shakespeare's poem ""Venus and Adonis"", as well as Ovid's poem of the same name in his ""Metamorphoses"". ""Venus and Adonis"" is considered by some to be either a semi-opera or a masque, but ""The New Grove"" names it as the earliest surviving English opera. In fact, an"
"adapted from Shakespeare's ""A Midsummer Night's Dream"" by perhaps Elkanah Settle, all of them graced by music by Henry Purcell, and together perhaps a sign of the coming 18th-century vogue for Italian opera. The lavish variety entertainment ""Dioclesian"", adapted by Betterton, with many monsters, dragons, and machines, from Massinger and Fletcher's ""History of Dioclesian"", was very popular throughout the 1690s and made a lot of money for the United Company. So did Dryden's much more serious ""King Arthur"", the first operatic entertainment that Hume is prepared to consider an artistic success, with Purcell's marvellous music a major part of the"
"own recordings, others who have recorded it include Matthias Bamert, Jose Serebrier, Richard Egarr and Iona Brown. Notes Sources Dido and Aeneas Dido and Aeneas (Z. 626) is an opera in a prologue and three acts, written by the English Baroque composer Henry Purcell with a libretto by Nahum Tate. The dates of the composition and first performance of the opera are uncertain. It was composed no later than July 1688, and had been performed at Josias Priest's girls' school in London by the end of 1689. Some scholars argue for a date of composition as early as 1683. The"
"his ""Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue"" (1618). The most notable aspect of the masque was its musical form. ""The whole masque was sung after the Italian manner ""stylo recitativo,"" by Master Nicholas Lanier; who ordered and made both the scene and the music."" The claim is controversial; it does not occur in the original 1617 quarto publication of Jonson's text, but only in the 1641 second folio. Sir William Davenant's ""The Siege of Rhodes"" (1656) is widely acclaimed as ""the first English opera;"" but Davenant's work had several precursors. If Lanier's ""Lovers Made Men"" featured through-and-through recitatives, it would certainly qualify"
"Orpheus Britannicus Orpheus Britannicus is a collection of songs by Henry Purcell, published posthumously in London in two volumes, the first in 1698 and the second in 1702. In the preface to the first volume, Henry Playford, the printer of the volume and the son of the famous John Playford, extolls Purcell's skill as setter of English texts. The portrait on the frontispiece was based on John Closterman's portrait of Purcell, currently in the National Portrait Gallery. The first publication of a section of Purcell's opera ""Dido and Aeneas"" was the air ""Ah! Belinda"" in ""Orpheus Britannicus"", transposed up one"
"that the opera was performed at the school again in 1689. Several scholars have argued that the work was composed for the English court, either for Charles II (and perhaps as early as 1684) or for James II. Following the Chelsea performances, the opera was not staged again in Purcell's lifetime. Its next performance was in 1700 as a ""masque"" incorporated into an adapted version of Shakespeare's ""Measure for Measure"" at Thomas Betterton's theatre in London. After 1705 it disappeared as a staged work, with only sporadic concert performances, until 1895 when the first staged version in modern times was"
"ocean around Britain. The Four Winds create a storm which is calmed by Aeolus: allowing Britannia to rise from the waves on an island with fishermen at her feet. Notes Sources Other sources King Arthur (opera) King Arthur, or The British Worthy (Z. 628), is a semi-opera in five acts with music by Henry Purcell and a libretto by John Dryden. It was first performed at the Queen's Theatre, Dorset Garden, London, in late May or early June 1691. The plot is based on the battles between King Arthur's Britons and the Saxons, rather than the legends of Camelot (although"
"thus uniting the wedding theme of ""A Midsummer Night's Dream"", with the celebration of William and Mary's anniversary. Audio Video Notes Sources The Fairy-Queen The Fairy-Queen (1692; Purcell catalogue number Z.629) is a masque or semi-opera by Henry Purcell; a ""Restoration spectacular"". The libretto is an anonymous adaptation of William Shakespeare's wedding comedy ""A Midsummer Night's Dream"". First performed in 1692, ""The Fairy-Queen"" was composed three years before Purcell's death at the age of 35. Following his death, the score was lost and only rediscovered early in the twentieth century. Purcell did not set any of Shakespeare's text to music;"
"during the Tudor period that involved music, dancing, singing and acting, often with expensive costumes and a complex stage design. These developed into sung plays that are recognizable as English operas, the first usually being thought of as ""The Siege of Rhodes"" (1656). In France, meanwhile, Molière turned several of his farcical comedies into musical entertainments with songs (music provided by Jean-Baptiste Lully) and dance in the late 17th century. These influenced a brief period of English opera by composers such as John Blow and Henry Purcell. From the 18th century, the most popular forms of musical theatre in Britain"
"turned several of his farcical comedies into musical entertainments with songs (music provided by Jean Baptiste Lully) and dance in the late 17th century. His ""Psyche"" was the model for an English opera by Thomas Shadwell, ""The Miser"" produced in 1672. Davenant produced ""The Tempest"" in 1667, which was the first Shakespeare plot set to music, and was then adapted by Shadwell into an opera in 1674 (composed by Matthew Locke and others). About 1683, John Blow composed ""Venus and Adonis"", often considered the first true English-language opera. Blow was followed by Henry Purcell and a brief period of English"
"first English ""Te Deum"" ever composed with orchestral accompaniment. This work was annually performed at St Paul's Cathedral until 1712, after which it was performed alternately with Handel's ""Utrecht Te Deum and Jubilate"" until 1743, when both works were replaced by Handel's ""Dettingen Te Deum"". He composed an anthem and two elegies for Queen Mary II's funeral, his ""Funeral Sentences and Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary"". Besides the operas and semi-operas already mentioned, Purcell wrote the music and songs for Thomas d'Urfey's ""The Comical History of Don Quixote"", ""Bonduca"", ""The Indian Queen"" and others, a vast quantity of"
"operas developed as a form of English stage entertainment, partly in opposition to the Italian domination of the London operatic scene. It consisted of racy and often satirical spoken (English) dialogue, interspersed with songs that were deliberately kept very short to minimize disruptions to the flow of the story. Subject matter involved the lower, often criminal, orders, and typically showed a suspension (or inversion) of the high moral values of the Italian opera of the period. The first, most important and successful was ""The Beggar's Opera"" of 1728, with a libretto by John Gay and music arranged by John Christopher"
"to an hour before the actual performance, and texts indicates that they were used during the plays. Plays, perhaps particularly the heavier histories and tragedies, were frequently broken up with a short musical play, perhaps derived from the Italian intermezzo, with music, jokes and dancing, known as a 'jigg' and from which the jig dance derives its name. After the closure of the London theatres in 1642 these tendencies developed into sung plays that are recognisable as English Opera's, the first usually being thought of as William Davenant's (1606–68) ""The Siege of Rhodes"" (1656), originally given in a private performance."
"to be performed, for a Royal audience. Erismena Erismena is an opera in a prologue and three acts by Francesco Cavalli. It was designated as a ""dramma per musica"". The Italian libretto was by Aurelio Aureli, the only work by this writer for Cavalli. Erismena is the first full-length opera known to have been translated into English and may have been first performed in England in 1674. It was first performed in Venice at the Teatro Sant 'Apollinare on 30 December 1655 with further performances between that date and 28 February 1656. Cavalli revised the work in 1670. Both versions"
"following the Norman Conquest in 1066, the Anglo-Norman language was the language of administration and few Kings of England spoke English. A large number of French words were assimilated into Old English, which lost most of its inflections, the result being Middle English. Around the year 1500, the Great Vowel Shift marked the transformation of Middle English into Modern English. The most famous surviving work from Old English is ""Beowulf"", and from Middle English is Geoffrey Chaucer's ""The Canterbury Tales"". The rise of Modern English began around the fifteenth century, with Early Modern English reaching its literary pinnacle at the"
"""Euridice"" (1600); Caccini's ""Euridice"" (1602); Rossi's ""Orfeo"" (1647); Cesti's ""Il pomo d'oro"" (1668); Sartoris's ""Orfeo"" (1672); Lully's ""Alceste"", a ""tragédie en musique"" (1674); Charpentier's chamber opera ""La descente d'Orphée aux enfers"" (1686); Telemann's ""Orpheus"" (1726); and Rameau's ""Hippolyte et Aricie"" (1733). Pluto was a baritone in Lully's ""Proserpine"" (1680), which includes a duo dramatizing the conflict between the royal underworld couple that is notable for its early use of musical characterization. Perhaps the most famous of the Orpheus operas is Offenbach's satiric ""Orpheus in the Underworld"" (1858), in which a tenor sings the role of ""Pluton"", disguised in the giddily"
"opera. After the death of Charles II in 1685, English opera began to fall out of fashion. By the 18th century, the most popular forms of musical theatre in Britain were ballad operas, like John Gay's ""The Beggar's Opera"" (1728), that included lyrics written to the tunes of popular songs of the day (often spoofing opera), and later the developing form of pantomime and comic operas with original scores and mostly romantic plot lines, like Michael Balfe's ""The Bohemian Girl"" (1845). Meanwhile, on the continent, singspiel, comédie en vaudeville, opéra comique and other forms of light musical entertainment were emerging."
"King Arthur (opera) King Arthur, or The British Worthy (Z. 628), is a semi-opera in five acts with music by Henry Purcell and a libretto by John Dryden. It was first performed at the Queen's Theatre, Dorset Garden, London, in late May or early June 1691. The plot is based on the battles between King Arthur's Britons and the Saxons, rather than the legends of Camelot (although Merlin does make an appearance). It is a Restoration spectacular, including such supernatural characters as Cupid and Venus plus references to the Germanic gods of the Saxons, Woden, Thor, and Freya. The tale"
"Italian opera for the Queen's Theatre in the Haymarket (it became the ""King's Theatre"" after King George I's accession in 1714). This theatre, designed and built by Sir John Vanbrugh, had become London's main opera house; its manager, Aaron Hill, intended to mount the first Italian opera written specifically for London and had engaged an all-Italian company for the 1710–11 opera season. Hill employed an Italian poet and language teacher, Giacomo Rossi, to write a libretto based on a scenario that Hill prepared himself. As his subject Hill chose ""Gerusalemme liberata"", an epic of the First Crusade by the 16th-century"
"Tale into Autumn thereby following Januarie's tale on beyond the grave. As the first ever opera in Middle English, the work attracted wide interest. 'The Tale of Januarie' is published by Peters Edition. The Merchant's Tale ""The Merchant's Tale"" () is one of Geoffrey Chaucer's ""Canterbury Tales"". In it Chaucer subtly mocks antifeminist literature like that of Theophrastus ('Theofraste'). The tale also shows the influence of Boccaccio (""Decameron"": 7th day, 9th tale), Deschamps' """", ""Roman de la Rose"" by Guillaume de Lorris (translated into English by Chaucer), Andreas Capellanus, Statius and Cato. The tale is found in Persia in the"
"have revived his secular cantatas and what one might call 'secular oratorios' or 'concert operas'. Of the former, ""Ode for St. Cecilia's Day"" (1739) (set to texts by John Dryden) and ""Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne"" (1713) are noteworthy. For his secular oratorios, Handel turned to classical mythology for subjects, producing such works as ""Acis and Galatea"" (1719), ""Hercules"" (1745) and ""Semele"" (1744). These works have a close kinship with the sacred oratorios, particularly in the vocal writing for the English-language texts. They also share the lyrical and dramatic qualities of Handel's Italian operas. As such, they are"
"the 20th century and several of its arias, including ""The Plaint"" (""O let me weep""), have become popular recital pieces. In July 2009, in celebration of the 350th anniversary of Purcell's birth, ""The Fairy-Queen"" was performed by Glyndebourne Festival Opera using a new edition of the score, prepared for the Purcell Society by Bruce Wood and Andrew Pinnock. ""The Fairy-Queen"" was first performed on 2 May 1692 at the Queen's Theatre, Dorset Garden in London by the United Company. The author or at least co-author of the libretto was presumably Thomas Betterton, the manager of Dorset Garden Theatre, with whom"
"extant. The Siege of Rhodes The Siege of Rhodes is an opera written to a text by the impresario William Davenant. The score is by five composers, the vocal music by Henry Lawes, Matthew Locke, and Captain Henry Cooke, and the instrumental music by Charles Coleman and George Hudson. It is considered to be the first English opera. Part 1 of ""The Siege of Rhodes"" was first performed in a small private theatre constructed at Davenant's home Rutland House in 1656. Special permission had to be obtained from the Puritan government of Oliver Cromwell as dramatic performances were outlawed and"
"Canterbury Tales"" to a cross section of people, all snow-sports enthusiasts but from different social backgrounds, converging on a remote back-country ski cabin in British Columbia in the 2011 novel ""The Canterbury Trail"". ""The Two Noble Kinsmen"", by William Shakespeare and John Fletcher, a retelling of ""The Knight's Tale"", was first performed in 1613 or 1614 and published in 1634. In 1961, Erik Chisholm completed his opera, ""The Canterbury Tales"". The opera is in three acts: The Wyf of Bath’s Tale, The Pardoner’s Tale and The Nun’s Priest’s Tale. Nevill Coghill's modern English version formed the basis of a musical"
"Dioclesian Dioclesian (The Prophetess: or, The History of Dioclesian) is a tragicomic semi-opera in five acts by Henry Purcell to a libretto by Thomas Betterton based on the play ""The Prophetess"", by John Fletcher and Philip Massinger, which in turn was based very loosely on the life of the Emperor Diocletian. It was premiered in late May 1690 at the Queen's Theatre, Dorset Garden. The play was first produced in 1622. [??] Choreography for the various dances was provided by Josias Priest, who worked with Purcell on several other semi-operas. Betterton reworked the play extensively, making room for a great"
"Opera in English The history of opera in the English language commences in the 17th century. In England, one of opera's antecedents in the 16th century was an afterpiece which came at the end of a play; often scandalous and consisting in the main of dialogue set to music arranged from popular tunes. In this respect such afterpieces anticipate the ballad operas of the 18th century. At the same time, the French masque was gaining a firm hold at the English Court, with lavish splendour and highly realistic scenery. Inigo Jones became the leading designer of these productions, and this"
"The Fairy-Queen The Fairy-Queen (1692; Purcell catalogue number Z.629) is a masque or semi-opera by Henry Purcell; a ""Restoration spectacular"". The libretto is an anonymous adaptation of William Shakespeare's wedding comedy ""A Midsummer Night's Dream"". First performed in 1692, ""The Fairy-Queen"" was composed three years before Purcell's death at the age of 35. Following his death, the score was lost and only rediscovered early in the twentieth century. Purcell did not set any of Shakespeare's text to music; instead he composed music for short masques in every act but the first. The play itself was also slightly modernised in keeping"
"On London Fields On London Fields is an opera in two acts by Matthew King with a libretto by Alasdair Middleton, notable for its use of multiple ensembles and choruses. Some of the music was devised during a series of improvisational workshops. It was commissioned by Hackney Music Development Trust and premiered in the Hackney Empire theatre in 2004. The opera has been described by the novelist, Margaret Drabble as ""one of the most exciting community events I’ve ever seen."" The story concerns the life and prophecies of the 17th Century mystic and resident of Hackney, Hannah Trapnell. The opera"
"""The Canterbury Tales"", late 1300s). She is also cited in Christine de Pizan's ""The Book of the City of Ladies."" ""Patient Griselda"" is a tale by Charles Perrault (, 1691). John Phillip's play ""The Commodye of Pacient and Meeke Grissill"" (also known as ""The Plaie of Grissill"") dates from 1565. Henry Chettle, Thomas Dekker and William Haughton collaborated on another dramatic version, ""Patient Grissel"", first performed in 1599. There are operas named ""Griselda"" by Antonio Maria Bononcini (""Griselda"", 1718), Alessandro Scarlatti (""La Griselda"", 1721), Giovanni Bononcini (""Griselda"", 1722), and Antonio Vivaldi (""Griselda"", 1735). Also Jules Massenets Grisélidis (1901) was inspired"