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ohn low JVenus andB Adonis

Theatre of the Ayre

Elizabethdirected by Kenny 0043 CD Booklet RPM.qxd 06-12-2010 09:43 Page 2

Theatre of the Ayre Elizabeth Kenny JOHN BLOW 01 Cloe found Amintas lying (A Song for Three Voices) 06.20 02 Ground in G minor for violin and continuo 03.56 MICHEL LAMBERT 03 Vos mépris chaque jour me causent mille alarmes 03.41 ROBERT DE VISÉE 04 Chaconne 05.12 JOHN BLOW Venus and Adonis 05 OVERTURE 03.37 PROLOGUE 06 Cupid ‘Behold my arrows and my bow’ 07.00 07 Cupid’s Entry 01.14 08 Tune for Flutes 02.33 ACT 1 09 Adonis ‘Venus!’ 02.27 10 Hunters’ Music 03.51 11 Chorus ‘Come follow, follow to the noblest game’ 02.32 12 A Dance by a Huntsman 01.19 13 Act Tune 01.54 ACT 2 14 Cupid ‘You place with such delightful care’ 01.56 15 The Cupids’ Lesson 03.03

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Cupid and the little Cupids ‘The insolent, the arrogant’ 16 A Dance of the Cupids 01.28 17 Venus ‘Call the Graces’ 01.08 18 Chorus of the Graces ‘Mortals below, Cupids above’ 01.22 19 The Graces’ Dance 01.26 20 Gavatt 00.46 21 Saraband for the Graces 01.22 22 A Ground 01.52 23 Act Tune 02.39 ACT 3 24 Venus ‘Adonis!’ 05.03 25 Venus ‘With solemn pomp let mourning Cupids bear’ 07.05

Theatre of the Ayre Elizabeth Kenny director/theorbo/guitar Venus Sophie Daneman Adonis Roderick Williams Cupid Elin Manahan Thomas Soprano and shepherdess Helen Neeves Alto and shepherd Caroline Sartin Tenor and huntsman Jason Darnell Bass and shepherd Frederick Long Cupids from Salisbury Cathedral Girls’ Choir, coached by Director of Music David Halls, with kind permission of the Dean and Chapter Grace Beverley, Flora Davies, Kelly Frost, Hermione Leitch, Rebecca Lyles, Helena Mackie, Georgiana Roxburgh, Rosanna Wicks violins Rachel Podger, Clare Salaman viola Galina Zinchenko bass violin and viol Alison McGillivray recorders Pamela Thorby, Kate Latham, Merlin Harrison theorboes/guitars Elizabeth Kenny, David Miller harpsichord James Johnstone 3 0043 CD Booklet RPM.qxd 06-12-2010 09:43 Page 4

BLOW: VENUS AND ADONIS Venus and Adonis, Blow’s masterpiece, is the last lyrical music plus a couple of contrasting dances masque ever composed for the Stuart court (essential masque ingredients). The scene is set and, though in effect a miniature all-sung opera, for Act I with a sensuously writhing tune scored retained some traces of earlier masquing con- for recorders, instruments specifically associated ventions, one of which was the participation of with love and sex. The embraces of Venus and royalty. It therefore stands at the cross-roads of Adonis, vividly depicted in their music, are masque and opera, and is yet more important for interrupted by the sounds of huntsmen’s horns, having subsequently served Purcell as the model but – in a reversal of the myth – Adonis, urged by for Dido and Aeneas. Its date is uncertain, but Dr Venus to join the hunt, is reluctant to do so, and Sandra Tuppen of the British Library has recently agrees only when the huntsmen arrive on stage found evidence pointing to Shrovetide 1683, and ask him to lead them against a mighty boar. which fits with the style of the music and the age In Act II, the boudoir interlude, Venus coaches of the youngest member of the cast – its only royal Cupid and the Little Cupids in the cunning arts of member, if a slightly down-at-heel one. Lady Mary making perverse love-matches, and the Graces Tudor, who played Cupid, was the illegitimate literally dance attendance upon Venus. The act daughter of Charles II and a retired actress named concludes with a string of courtly dances which Moll Davies, who played Venus. The librettist, may be a vestige of the revels, the social dances long and frustratingly elusive, was identified only which concluded the Jacobean and Caroline two years ago by Professor James Winn of Boston masque; the last of them is a particularly University as Anne Kingsmill (subsequently imposing ground-bass number – a fine example married as Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea), of the Grand Dance which ends many of Lully’s who was a Maid of Honour to Maria Beatrice of contemporaneous entertainments for Louis XIV. Modena, the wife of Charles II’s brother James Then the mood suddenly darkens from comedy and a keen enthusiast for opera. Much of the and grace into tragedy. For Venus’s heartbroken second act of the masque, which is unconnected farewell to Adonis, mortally wounded by the boar, with the plot, deals instead with the duties of the Blow created some of the most gloriously Maids of Honour, represented on stage by the eloquent declamatory music ever composed in Graces. England, and a mourning chorus of cupids whose The conventional Prologue, too, is unconnec- expressive power wasunprecedented in English ted with the myth, presenting a conversation – dramatic music. about the vicissitudes of love, naturally – between Cupid and a group of shepherds and *** shepherdesses, and including some ravishing 4 0043 CD Booklet RPM.qxd 06-12-2010 09:43 Page 5

The discovery that Venus and Adonis had a movingly declares despite the artifices to which female librettist starts a train of thinking such an environment leads, she gives him ‘freely about the female voice in what is at first glance all delights / With pleasant days and easy nights’. averymale dominated – notto saystereo- In Act II Venus rehearses Cupid’s lessons and, typically chauvinist – corner of English music, the in a parody of the teaching which was John Blow’s Restoration. Add in the powerful image of Venus day job with the Children of the Chapel Royal, they and Cupid being sung not by a female and a are dutifully passed on to Little Cupids. But a cheeky young boy, but by a retired actor-singer- stunning reversal comes when it is Venus who royal mistress and her daughter glowing on the asks Cupid how to keep hold of Adonis, and the cusp of adolescence and you have a telling insight girl replies ‘use him very ill’. This is a stock treat- into the nature of female power structures which ment but, significantly an abandonment of Venus’ give this masque-opera an entirely different feel own ‘free’ philosophy. Blow used almostthe to its cousin, Dido and Aeneas. Both Dido same notes for her manic laughter – albeit a lot and Venus are the authors of their own fates, faster – as will reappear as her unhinged howl at but Nahum Tate’s Dido follows the – traditional the end of the story. With this exchange Venus has male? – view of an out-of-control heroine, where- ceded authority to Cupid, a culture has embraced as in Kingsmill’s reworking of the classical story it cynicism rather than the opposite, and nothing is Venus’ realism and clear-eyed wish to preserve will be the same again. The young can be as cal- a no-longer-youthful passion which sends them lous as they like, because they have the magazine both to ruin. She send Adonis off to hunt and of beauty without even trying. Usually male lovers to his doom because she needs to stay and like the ‘decoying’ shepherds in Dryden/Purcell’s attend to her ‘magazine of beauty’, and does not King Arthur are in the driving seat, but in this wish her middle-aged lover to tire, a piece of libretto it is the female desire that comes first: ‘To satire against Adonis (for which contemporary warm desires the women nature moves, / And audiences would have read Charles) which every youthful swain by nature loves.’ In the real perhaps only a female writer could get away with world this power doesn’t get them very far. (and which was tactfully re-written for the The first half of this recording is a brief taste sensibilities of Josias Priest’s girls school, where of the sound world of Restoration chamber Venus, like Dido, was later performed). The performance, whose resourcesBlow used to full libretto treads an uneasy line between worldly effect in Venus. We open with the teasingly cynicism and a rejection of the same: Cupid theatrical Cloe found Amintas lying. Blow had rolls out the courtiers-are-faithless line at the written this for countertenors, but included it in audience’s expense in the Prologue, but Venus Amphion Anglicus – his retrospective collection of 5 0043 CD Booklet RPM.qxd 06-12-2010 09:43 Page 6

vocal music published in 1700 – in a version for headily sensous song set over a ground bass.) sopranos, catering to a demand for songs for Lambert played the theorbo and sometimes sang female voices. As was customary, the parts were his own songs but he also performed alongside simply printed an octave higher, producing a Hiliare Dupuy, his sister-in-law and the soprano tessitura more comfortable for bats (though in star of Louis XIII’s court. Like Blow, Lambert used this performance it is transposed downward for the symphony song form – songs interspersed the comfort of performersand listenersalike!). with instrumental ritornelli – in his 1689 collec- The cunningly wrought cyclic scheme of Dryden's tion, Ayres a une, ii, ii et iv voix avec la basse poem, whose subtitle is ‘A Roundelay’, allows continue. Theorbo, lute and guitar player Robert Blow full scope for reiterating the sensuous de Visée worked both in this sort of exclusive passage that depicts a kiss. intimate circle for Charles’s cousin and role Blow, like Purcell, was a master of that new- model, Louis XIV, and in the theatre of Lully and fangled Italian genre, the ground (or reiterated) Molière. bass. The Ground in G minor (track 2) also exists Charles’s taste in instrumental and dance as a trio sonata; this version for solo violin was music was also informed by his desire to import discovered in the Bodleian Library by Elizabeth French cultural prestige to his own court. He Hirst. The bass is subjected to splendidly formed his own vingt quatre violons du Roy and resourceful treatment in the violin part, including promoted French wind instruments including the vigorous and varied figuration, several sly and recorder. The impact of three of them, headed up unexpected twists of harmony, some unexpected by James Paisible – who was in the same employ use of double-stopping (still a fairly novel as Anne Kingsmill at the time Venus was put on – technique at the time), and, in the final variation, must have been sensational. Peter Lely painted a a succession of wrenching dissonances worthy of beautiful picture of Mary Davies with her guitar Purcell at his best. (reproduced on the back page of this booklet). Venus and Adonis – like the masque Calisto Teaming up as she did with Paisible soon after in which Mary Davies starred in a predominantly Venus and Adonis, the link between the amorous female cast in 1675 – draws on a tradition of flute and soft guitar immortalized in Purcell’s St highly accomplished girl and women singers to Cecilia Ode of 1692 was born. which many manuscripts full of ornate sophisti- Notes by Bruce Wood and Elizabeth Kenny © 2011 cated songs attest. One such, Anne Blount’s collection of the 1650s, has French songs by Michel Lambert set alongside Italian ayres and works by leading singers Henry Lawes and Charles Coleman. (Vos mespris chaque jour, track 3, is a 6 0043 CD Booklet RPM.qxd 06-12-2010 09:43 Page 7

Research informing this performance was supported by Arts Council England and SHM Foundation, a charitable trust that works globally to bring about positive social change through the active involvement and empowerment of citizens.

The music for Venus and Adonis, edited by Bruce Wood for the Purcell Society, is published by Stainer & Bell Ltd (Purcell Society Companion Series, Vol. 2, 2008). This is its first recording.

www.wigmore-hall.org.uk/live

Also available on Wigmore Hall Live from all good record shops and from www.wigmore-hall.org.uk/live

NOT JUST DOWLAND Songs for soprano and lute Carolyn Sampson Matthew Wadsworth WHLive0034 ‘Carolyn Sampson’s pure soprano cossets the words, savouring their expressive implications, relishing their shifts of rhythm and subtly sighing with bliss, yearning or heartache depending on the circumstances’ (The Daily Telegraph)‘Together [Sampson and Wadsworth] weave a superb tapestry of little-known 17th-century vocal music’ (The Independent)

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JOHN BLOW (1649–1708) ROBERT DE VISÉE (c. 1655–1732/3) 01 Cloe found Amintas lying 04 Chaconne for 2 theorbos All in tears upon the plain, Sighing to himself, and crying: ‘Wretched I, to love in vain! JOHN BLOW Kiss me, dear, before my dying; Venus and Adonis Kiss me once, and ease my pain!’ Sighing to himself, and crying: 05 OVERTURE ‘Wretched I, to love in vain! Ever scorning, and denying PROLOGUE To reward your faithful swain; The curtain is drawn, where is discovered Cupid, Kiss me, dear, before my dying; with a bow in one hand and an arrow in the Kiss me once, and ease my pain!’ other hand, and arrows by his side, and round him ‘Ever scorning, and denying shepherds and shepherdesses. Cupid bows and To reward your faithful swain!’ sings. Cloe, laughing at his crying, 06 Cupid Behold my arrows and my bow; Told him that he lov’d in vain. And I desire my art to show. ‘Kiss me, dear, before my dying; No one’s bosom shall be found, Kiss me once, and ease my pain!’ Ere I have done, without a wound, Cloe, laughing at his crying, But it would be the greatest art Told him that he lov’d in vain. To shoot myself into your heart. But repenting, and complying, Thither with both my wings I’ll move: When he kiss’d, she kiss’d again, Pray entertain the God of Love. Kiss’d him up, before his dying, Shepherdess Come, shepherds all, let’s sing and play: Kiss’d him up, and eas’d his pain. Be willing, lovesome, fond and gay. (John Dryden, 1631–1700) Chorus of shepherds and shepherdesses Come, shepherdesses, sing and play: 02 Ground in G minor Be willing, lovesome, fond and gay. 1st Shepherd She who those soft hours misuses, (1610–1696) And a begging swain refuses, MICHEL LAMBERT When she would the time recover, 03 Vos méspris chaque jour me causent mille alarmes, May she have a feeble lover. Mais je chéris mon sort, bien qu’il soit rigoureux. Hélas! Si dans mes mauz je trouve tant de charmes, Shepherdess The best of the Celestial Pow’rs Je mourrais de plaisir, si j’étais plus heureux. Is come to give us happy hours. (Anonymous) Chorus The best … Each day your contempt causes me a thousand anxieties. 2nd Shepherd Oh let him not from hence remove But I love my fate, however harsh it may be. Shepherdess Till ev’ry bosom’s full of love. Alas! If I find so many delights in my misfortune, I would die of pleasure if I were any happier.

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Chorus Oh let him not … Venus Adonis, thy delightful youth Cupid Courtiers, there is no faith in you, Is full of beauty and of truth: You change as often as you can; With thee the Queen of Love employs Your women they continue true The hours design’d for softer joys. But till they see another man. Adonis My Venus still has something new, 3rd Shepherd Cupid, hast thou many found Which forces lovers to be true. Long in the same fetters bound? Venus Me my lovely youth shall find Cupid At court I find constant and true Always tender, ever kind. Only an aged lord or two. 10 ‘Hunters’ Music’. They rise from the couch when 3rd Shepherd Who do their empire longest hold? they hear the music. Cupid The foolish, ugly, and the old. Venus Hark, hark, the rural music sounds; In these sweet groves love is not taught, Hark, hark the hunters, hark the hounds! Beauty and pleasure is not bought; They summon to the chase; haste, haste away! To warm desires the women nature moves, Adonis Adonis will not hunt today: And ev’ry youthful swain by nature loves. I have already caught the noblest prey. Chorus In these sweet groves … Venus No, my shepherd, haste away. Whilst this chorus is singing a shepherd and Absence kindles new desire: shepherdess dance to it. I would not have my lover tire. My shepherd, will you know the art Cupid Lovers, to the close shades retire: By which I keep a conquer’d heart? Do what your kindest thoughts inspire. I seldom vex a lover’s ears [Exeunt omnes] With business, or with jealous fears; 07 ‘Cupid’s Entry’. The curtain closes. The end of the I give him freely all delights prologue. With pleasant days and easy nights. 08 Tune for Flutes Adonis Yet there is a sort of men Who delight in heavy chains, ACT I Upon whom ill-usage gains; The curtain opens and discovers Venus and Adonis And they never love till then. sitting together upon a couch, embracing one another. Venus Those are fools of mighty leisure: Wise men love the easiest pleasure. 09 Adonis Venus! I give you freely all delights Venus Adonis! With pleasant days and easy nights. Adonis Venus, when shall I Adonis Adonis will not hunt today. Taste soft delights, and on thy bosom lie? Venus No, my shepherd, haste away. Let’s seek the shadiest covert of this grove, And never disappoint expecting love. Exit Venus. Enter Huntsmen to Adonis, and sing this Chorus.

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Chorus of Huntsmen Venus Fit well your arrows when you strike, 11 Come follow, follow to the noblest game; And choose for all what each may like; Here the sprightly youth may purchase fame. But make some love they know not why, Huntsman And for the ugly and ill-humour’d die. A mighty boar our spears and darts defies. Such as scorn love’s fire He foams and rages; see, he wounds Force them to admire. The stoutest of our Cretan hounds. 15 ‘The Cupids’ Lesson’ He roars like thunder, and he lightens from his eyes. Cupid and the little Cupids You who the slothful joys of city hate, The insolent, the arrogant, And early up for rougher pleasures wait, The M. E. R. Mer: C. E. Ce: Next the delight which heav’nly beauty yields, [Venus teaches Cupid to spell] Nothing, oh! nothing is so sweet Mer: Ce: N. A. Na: R. Y. Ry: As for our huntsmen, that do meet The mercenary, the vain and silly, With able coursers and good hounds to range the fields. The jealous and uneasy: all such as tease ye. Chorus of Huntsmen Venus and the Cupids Lachne has fasten’d first, but she is old; All such as tease ye. Bring hither Ladon, he is strong and bold. Hey, Lachne, hey, Melampus! Oh, they bleed! Cupid Choose for the formal fool Your spears, your spears! Adonis, thou shalt lead. Who scorns Love’s mighty school [Exeunt singing] One that delights in secret glances, And a great reader of romances. 12 ‘A Dance by a Huntsman’. The curtain closes. For him that’s faithless, wild and gay, 13 Act Tune Who with love’s pain does only play, ACT II Take some affected, wanton she, The curtain opens and Venus and Cupid are seen As faithless and as wild as he. standing with little Cupids round about them. Venus 14 Cupid You place with such delightful care But, Cupid, how shall I make Adonis constant still? The fetters which your lovers wear. Cupid Use him very ill. [Venus laughs] None can be weary to obey Venus To play, my Loves, to play: When you their eager wishes bless; ’Tis Venus makes it holiday. [Points to the little Cupids] The crowding joys each other press, 16 ‘A Dance of Cupids’ And round you smiling Cupids play. After the dance the little Cupids play together at [Venus takes Cupid into her lap] hide and seek and at hot cockles till Cupid frightens them off the stage with a vizard mask, Venus Flattering boy, hast thou been reading and then they come on again (peeping) when Those lessons and refined arts Cupid calls the Graces, and join with them in By which thou may’st set a-bleeding the chorus. A thousand tender hearts? 17 Venus Call the Graces. Cupid Yes, but mother, teach me to destroy All such as scorn your wanton boy. Cupid Come, all ye Graces! ’Tis your duty To keep the magazine of beauty.

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Venus ’Tis your duty Venus To keep my magazine of beauty. Ah! blood and warm life his rosy cheeks forsake. Enter the Graces. Alas! Death’s sleep thou art too young to take. My groans shall reach the heav’ns; O Pow’rs above, Chorus of the Graces Take pity on the wretched Queen of Love! 18 Mortals below, Cupids above, Sing, sing the praises of the Queen of Love. Adonis Oh! I could well endure the pointed dart, The world for that bright beauty dies; Did it not make the best of lovers part. Sing, sing the triumphs of her conqu’ring eyes. Venus Ye cruel gods, why should not I Hark! hark! ev’n Nature sighs: this joyful night Have the great privilege to die? She will beget desire and yield delight. Adonis Love, mighty Love does my kind bosom fire; 19 The Graces’ Dance Shall I for want of vital heat expire? 20 Gavatt No, no! warm life returns, and Death’s afraid This heart (Love’s faithful kingdom) to invade. 21 Sarabrand for the Graces Venus No, the grim Monster gains the day; While the Graces dance, the Cupids dress Venus, With thy warm blood life steals away. one combing her head, another ties a bracelet of pearls round her wrist &c. Adonis I see Fate calls; let me on your soft bosom lie: 22 A Ground There I did wish to live, and there I beg to die. 23 Act Tune [Adonis dies] After the dances the curtain closes upon them. Venus Ah, Adonis, my love, ah, Adonis! ACT III Venus and Chorus The curtain opens and discovers Venus standing in 25 With solemn pomp let mourning Cupids bear a melancholy posture. My soft Adonis through the yielding air. 24 Venus Adonis! Adonis! Adonis! He shall adorn the heav’ns; here I will weep Till I am fall’n into as cold a sleep. A mourning Cupid goes across the stage and shakes an arrow at her. Chorus Mourn for thy servant, mighty God of Love; Weep for your huntsman, O forsaken grove. Uncall’d for sighs from my sad bosom rise, Mourn, Echo, mourn: thou shalt no more repeat And grief has the dominion of my eyes. His tender sighs and vows, when he did meet A mourning Love pass’d by me now, that sung With the wretched Queen of Love Of tombs, and urns, and ev’ry mournful thing. In this forsaken grove. Return, Adonis, ’tis for thee I grieve. (Anne Kingsmill, later Anne Finch, Venus leans against the side of the stage and Countess of Winchilsea, 1661–1720) weeps. Adonis is led in wounded. Adonis I come, as fast as Death will give me leave: Behold the wounds made by th’Ædalian boar! Faithful Adonis now must be no more.

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Elizabeth Kenny

THEATRE OF THE AYRE Elizabeth Kenny has always enjoyed collective toured a project entitled the Masque of Moments improvisation and working with singers, and has in 2007–8, and the group became the Theatre of had a longstanding love of English 17th-century the Ayre. The Masque of Moments was broadcast song. A fellowship in the Creative and Performing in the UK, Germany and Belgium and introduced Arts at Southampton University, funded by the audience to lesser known corners of the masque Arts and Humanities Research Council, enabled repertoire. This remains the group’s aim, re- her to pursue ideas and experiments in the inventing 17th-century works in a spirit of improvi- performance of this repertoire with a number of sation and, most importantly, entertainment. singer and player collaborators. Together they 12 0043 CD Booklet RPM.qxd 06-12-2010 09:44 Page 13

ELIZABETH KENNY Elizabeth Kenny is one of Europe’s leading lute and Dowland, with Robin Blaze, Carolyn players. Her playing has been described as Sampson, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlighten- ‘incandescent, radical and indecently beautiful’, ment (co-directed with Steven Devine and Sarah among many other accolades. In fifteen years of Connolly) and Mark Padmore. A solo CD Flying touring she has played with many of the world’s Horse: The ML Lutebook was released by Hyperion best period instrument groups and experienced Records in 2009. Elizabeth Kenny taught for two many different approaches to music making. She years at the Hochschule der Künste, Berlin, is has been appointed one of the four artistic professor of lute at the Royal Academy of Music, advisors to the York Early Music Festival from and a lecturer in performance at Southampton 2011 to 2013. Her musical interests have led to University. critically acclaimed recordings of Lawes, Purcell

ELIN MANAHAN THOMAS Elin Manahan Thomas is fast becoming one of Eisteddfod and Fauré’s Requiem with the Royal Britain’s most popular young sopranos. She has Philharmonic. On television, Elin appeared in performed in venues such as the Royal Albert Hall, BBC2’s Birth of British Music and in BBC4’s highly Lincoln Center, Westminster Abbey and Het acclaimed series Sacred Music. Concertgebouw Amsterdam. Her 2009 Signum release of Patrick Hawes’s Song of Songs was CD SOPHIE DANEMAN of the week on Classic FM. She is the first singer Sophie Daneman studied with Johanna Peters at ever to record Bach’s Alles mit Gott, discovered the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. She has in 2005. In 2008 she performed in the premiere appeared with the Opéra Comique, Netherlands of Tavener’s Requiem in Liverpool Cathedral Opera, Nationale Reisopera, Opéra de Lausanne, (also recorded for EMI), and in 2009 she made Bavarian State Opera and Göttingen Handel her debut at Wigmore Hall with the Academy of Festival, and in recital at Wigmore Hall, the Queen Ancient Music. Recent performances include BBC Elizabeth Hall, Het Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Proms in the Park, a Songs of Praise Messiah Musikverein Vienna and Carnegie Hall New York. special from Birmingham Town Hall, a gala She sang Theodora with William Christie in New concert to close the Llangollen International York, Paris and Salzburg, and Bernstein’s 13 0043 CD Booklet RPM.qxd 06-12-2010 09:44 Page 14

Elizabeth Kenny with girl choristers of Salisbury Cathedral School

Wonderful Town and her first Susanna (Le nozze di ments include a recital tour with Christianne Figaro) for Grange Park Opera. Sophie Daneman’s Stotijn in Spain and the Netherlands, recitals many recordings include Theodora with William with Ian Bostridge in London and Hohenems, Christie, Rodelinda with Nicholas Kraemer, Schoenberg’s Quartet Op. 10 with the Tokyo Vivaldi’s Ottone in Villa with Richard Hickox, String Quartet in Valencia and Madrid, and a tour Schumann Lieder with Julius Drake and Noel of Lully’s Atys with Les Arts Florissants and Coward songs alongside Ian Bostridge. Engage- William Christie.

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RODERICK WILLIAMS Roderick Williams encompasses a wide reper- Cheltenham and Aldeburgh. His recent engage- toire, from baroque to contemporary music, in ments include a revival of The Magic Flute at the opera house, on the concert platform and ENO, Il barbiere di Siviglia for Florida Grand in recital. He has enjoyed close relationships Opera, a European tour of Handel’s Messiah, and with Opera North and Scottish Opera, and is performances of Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden particularly associated with the baritone roles of Gesellen at La Scala Milan. Future engagements Mozart. In autumn 2007 he gave highly acclaimed include Le nozze di Figaro for Scottish Opera, Ned performances of Papageno (The Magic Flute) for Keene (Peter Grimes) at Covent Garden and Pollux English National Opera and in 2008 sang in La in Rameau’s Castor and Pollux for ENO, as well bohème at Covent Garden. He has worked with as concerts with the BBC National Orchestra of orchestras throughout Europe, including all the Wales, the Hallé and the Ensemble Orchestral de BBC orchestras in the UK, and his many festival Paris. appearances include the Proms, Edinburgh,

Engineered by Steve Portnoi Produced by Jeremy Hayes Recorded live at Wigmore Hall, London, on 3 May 2010 Director: John Gilhooly Wigmore Hall Live — General Manager: Helen Granger Photograph of choristers on p. 14 courtesy of Salisbury Cathedral All other photography by Benjamin Ealovega Manufactured by Repeat Performance Multimedia, London

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WHLive0043 Made & Printed in England

Portrait of Mrs Moll Davies, mistress of Charles II, flowers painted by Jean Baptiste Monnoyer (1636–1669) by Sir Peter Lely (1618–1680) © The Trustees of the Weston Park Foundation, UK / The Bridgeman Art Library, London