DOCSLIB.ORG

When Eros Meets Thanatos: the Bedchamber Scenes in Congreve/Eccles’S and Handel/Hamilton’S Semele(S)

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
When Eros Meets Thanatos: the Bedchamber Scenes in Congreve/Eccles’S and Handel/Hamilton’S Semele(S) © 2019 ARRÊT SUR SCÈNE / SCENE FOCUS (IRCL-UMR5186 du CNRS) ISSN 2268-977X. Tous droits réservés. Reproduction soumise à autorisation. Téléchargement et impression autorisés à usage personnel. www.ircl.cnrs.fr When Eros meets Thanatos: the bedchamber scenes in Congreve/Eccles’s and Handel/Hamilton’s Semele(s) Pierre DEGOTT Université de Lorraine Among the works of Handel’s maturity, Semele stands out as an anomaly. Given at Covent Garden in February 1744, the piece was first performed in an unstaged version, “in the Manner of an Oratorio”, even though in terms of form and subject matter it is undeniably a fully fledged opera. The libretto, initially written by William Congreve in 1707 for the composer John Eccles, bears all the characteristics of a work meant to be played onstage.1 The relative failure of this unique composition – it is one of a small number of dramatic works never to have been performed again in Handel’s lifetime – can no doubt be explained by its incompatibility with contemporary audience expectations. Obviously, the performance of an openly erotic work during Lent did not go down well with the more middle-class, puritanical public of the 1740s, not to mention the literary origins of a story based on Ovid’s Metamorphoses (Book III, II.251–313). The sexual imagery of the libretto did actually put off the English oratorio-going public of the 1740s, more concerned with moral edification than with the type of sexual titillation that characterises a libretto initially written by a master of the Restoration: “No Oratorio, but a baudy opera”, was the irrevocable comment made by Charles Jennens, the librettist of Handel’s Messiah.2 Another reason for the relatively cold reception of the work may also have stemmed from the fact that Handel, withdrawn from the world of opera, had recently refused Lord Middlesex’s offer to compose an opera in Italian for the company he had founded in 1739. The performance of Semele, a disguised opera sung in English, may well have offended the English aristocracy for whom the work thus amounted to an additional affront. Certainly this is what comes across in the correspondence of Mrs Delany, one of Handel’s faithful friends and an indefatigable chronicler of the London musical life of the 1730s and 40s: “Semele has a strong party against it, viz. the fine ladies, petits maîtres and ignoramus’s. All the opera people are enraged at Handel.”3 1 For various reasons (see n. 21), the work by Congreve and Eccles, intended for the new Queen’s Theatre in the Haymarket, was never staged in the eighteenth century. 2 See Winton Dean, “Charles Jennens’s Marginalia to Mainwaring’s Life of Handel”, Music and Letters, 53 (1972), pp. 160–64, 160. 3 Mary Delany, Autobiography and Correspondence of Mary Granville, Mrs. Delany: with Interesting Reminiscences of King George the Third and Queen Charlotte, 6 vols, ed. Lady Llanover, London, Bentley, 1861–62, vol. 2, p. 266 (letter dated 21 February 1744, addressed to Mrs Dewes). Bedchamber Scenes ARRÊT SUR SCÈNE/SCENE FOCUS 8 (2019) Semele’s fundamentally operatic and theatrical characteristics naturally derive from Handel’s decision to base the work on an eminently dramatic libretto penned in the early eighteenth century. Handel called on a second writer to make the changes he judged necessary for his revised version of Semele. Although the identity of this librettist is uncertain, it is generally believed that the new text was adapted by Newburgh Hamilton, a writer with whom Handel had collaborated on several previous occasions. Two of Hamilton’s outstanding works were the oratorio ode Alexander’s Feast (1736) and the oratorio Samson (1743), respectively adapted from Dryden’s eponymous poem and Milton’s dramatic poem Samson Agonistes. The aim of this article is to analyse and comment upon the cuts and additions made by Handel and Hamilton to Congreve’s text, especially as regards the treatment of the two bedchamber scenes that take up a considerable portion of the dramatic text. It will thus examine the sexual innuendos of the libretto, both in the initial version of 1707 and in the revised text concocted by Hamilton in the 1740s. The textual additions to the libretto do indeed endow the first bedchamber scene with an erotic dimension that is paradoxically far more conspicuous than in the original version destined for the Restoration stage. The paper will then demonstrate how the second bedchamber scene allows for the meeting of Eros and Thanatos, the fatal “bolt” delivered by Zeus being understandable in terms of sensual or sexual encounters. Finally, it will offer a comparative approach to the two musical settings of the verbal text, that of Eccles in the first decade of the eighteenth century and that of Handel in the 1740s. It will draw parallels between the textual and contextual elements of the work, the temporary demise of Italian opera in London being in a certain way also thematised in Handel and Hamilton’s reading of the work. The first bedchamber scene: the erotic contents of the text Let us first briefly set out the plot of the story in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Semele, the daughter of King Cadmus of Thebes and of the Queen Harmonia, loves and is loved by Jupiter and is carrying the god’s child. On the advice of the jealous and infuriated Juno, who appears to Semele disguised as her old nurse, the ambitious and unwise Semele asks Jupiter to appear before her in his true form and all his glory. As Juno had hoped, the mortal Semele is burnt to ashes when Jupiter appears to her as a thunderbolt. The god tears the unborn child from his mother’s womb and stitches it inside his thigh. The child of Jupiter and Semele is the god Bacchus. In his preface, Congreve openly admitted he had considerably deviated from Ovid’s story: ’Tis hoped, the Liberty … will be excus’d. … This Reason, it is presumed, may be allowed in a Thing intirely fictitious; and more especially being represented under the Title of an Opera, where greater Absurdities are every Day excus’d.4 The playwright’s modifications include the addition of several minor characters (Cupid, a High Priest, and Isis), as well as other figures more closely associated with the unfolding of the plot. One of these is the god Somnus, who assists Juno in her destructive plan. Somnus’s presence also allowed Congreve to weave into his story numerous references to the themes of sleep, forgetfulness and illusion, themes that are part and parcel of the setting of the bedchamber. The narrative is further complicated by the development of the subplot 4 D. F. McKenzie, ed., The Works of William Congreve, 3 vols, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2011, vol. 2, p. 238. All quotations are from this edition. <10> P. DEGOTT, The bedchamber scenes in Congreve/Eccles’s and Handel/Hamilton’s Semele(s) centred on the couple made up of Ino and Athamas. Their sentimental difficulties – Ino is in love with Athamas, who is smitten with Semele, who in turn loves Jupiter – offer a slightly ironic counterpart to the love affair conducted by Semele and Jupiter. The tragic destiny of Ino and Athamas in the original myth is at odds with their final coming together in Congreve’s version, perhaps making it necessary to take the lieto fine, or happy ending, that closes the opera with a pinch of salt. In the Handel/Hamilton version, the relatively conventional music of the final chorus encourages us to see the work as a sort of baroque trompe l’oeil designed to mask the more serious issues at stake. As already mentioned, Congreve’s libretto is notable for the presence of two long bedchamber scenes that constitute the main bulk of the opera. Even though the term “bedchamber” is not explicitly mentioned, most of the action of Acts I and II is set in Semele’s “apartment” (II.i), or “private Abode”,5 where the heroine sleeps away her time lying “under a canopy” and waiting to be satisfied by her immortal lover. In Congreve’s original libretto, the first bedchamber actually appears in Act II scene i (“The scene changes to an Apartment in the palace of Semele; she is sleeping; Loves and Zephyr waiting”), in which “Semele awakes, and rises”, singing about the joys of sleep: Semele O sleep, why dost thou leave me, Why thy visionary joys remove? O sleep, again deceive me, To my arms restore my wand’ring love! (II.ii) The rest of the act (scenes iii and iv) occurs in the same setting. Even though the stage directions for scene iv mention that “[t]he SCENE is totally changed and shows an open Country” (II.iv), one has to be aware that the scene is actually a dumb show offered as a divertissement to the main protagonists, an entertainment functioning as a play-within-the- play and relying on the inclusion of a “setting-within-the-setting”: The Scene is totally changed and shews an open Country. Several Shepherds and Shepherdesses Enter. Semele and Ino having entertain’d each other in dumb shew sit and observe the Rural Sports, which end the Second Act. (II.iv) In Handel’s setting of the story, one can argue that the first bedchamber already begins at the end of Act I. By transferring the words sung by the Second Augur (“Endless pleasure, endless love / Semele enjoys above”) to the character of Semele, who is now enjoying in Heaven the bliss of Jupiter’s love and attentions, the librettist actually modifies Congreve’s initial stage directions.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Daniel Purcell the Judgment of Paris
    Daniel Purcell The Judgment of Paris Anna Dennis • Amy Freston • Ciara Hendrick • Samuel Boden • Ashley Riches Rodolfus Choir • Spiritato! • Julian Perkins RES10128 Daniel Purcell (c.1664-1717) 1. Symphony [5:40] The Judgment of Paris 2. Mercury: From High Olympus and the Realms Above [4:26] 3. Paris: Symphony for Hoboys to Paris [2:31] 4. Paris: Wherefore dost thou seek [1:26] Venus – Goddess of Love Anna Dennis 5. Mercury: Symphony for Violins (This Radiant fruit behold) [2:12] Amy Freston Pallas – Goddess of War 6. Symphony for Paris [1:46] Ciara Hendricks Juno – Goddess of Marriage Samuel Boden Paris – a shepherd 7. Paris: O Ravishing Delight – Help me Hermes [5:33] Ashley Riches Mercury – Messenger of the Gods 8. Mercury: Symphony for Violins (Fear not Mortal) [2:39] Rodolfus Choir 9. Mercury, Paris & Chorus: Happy thou of Human Race [1:36] Spiritato! 10. Symphony for Juno – Saturnia, Wife of Thundering Jove [2:14] Julian Perkins director 11. Trumpet Sonata for Pallas [2:45] 12. Pallas: This way Mortal, bend thy Eyes [1:49] 13. Venus: Symphony of Fluts for Venus [4:12] 14. Venus, Pallas & Juno: Hither turn thee gentle Swain [1:09] 15. Symphony of all [1:38] 16. Paris: Distracted I turn [1:51] 17. Juno: Symphony for Violins for Juno [1:40] (Let Ambition fire thy Mind) 18. Juno: Let not Toyls of Empire fright [2:17] 19. Chorus: Let Ambition fire thy Mind [0:49] 20. Pallas: Awake, awake! [1:51] 21. Trumpet Flourish – Hark! Hark! The Glorious Voice of War [2:32] 22.
    [Show full text]
  • The Trumpet in Restoration Theatre Suites
    133 The Trumpet in Restoration Theatre Suites Alexander McGrattan Introduction In May 1660 Charles Stuart agreed to Parliament's terms for the restoration of the monarchy and returned to London from exile in France. After eighteen years of political turmoil, which culminated in the puritanical rule of the Commonwealth, Charles II's initial priorities on his accession included re-establishing a suitable social and cultural infrastructure for his court to function. At the outbreak of the civil war in 1642, Parliament had closed the London theatres, and performances of plays were banned throughout the interregnum. In August 1660 Charles issued patents for the establishment of two theatre companies in London. The newly formed companies were patronized by royalty and an aristocracy eager to circulate again in courtly circles. This led to a shift in the focus of theatrical activity from the royal court to the playhouses. The restoration of commercial theatres had a profound effect on the musical life of London. The playhouses provided regular employment to many of its most prominent musicians and attracted others from abroad. During the final quarter of the century, by which time the audiences had come to represent a wider cross-section of London society, they provided a stimulus to the city's burgeoning concert scene. During the Restoration period—in theatrical terms, the half-century following the Restoration of the monarchy—approximately six hundred productions were presented on the London stage. The vast majority of these were spoken dramas, but almost all included a substantial amount of music, both incidental (before the start of the drama and between the acts) and within the acts, and many incorporated masques, or masque-like episodes.
    [Show full text]
  • 'Inspire Us Genius of the Day': Rewriting the Regent in the Birthday Ode for Queen Anne, 1703
    Eighteenth-Century Music 13/1, 1–21 © Cambridge University Press, 2015 doi:10.1017/S1478570615000421 ‘inspire us genius of the day’: 1 rewriting the regent in the birthday 2 ode for queen anne, 1703 3 estelle murphy 4 ! 5 ABSTRACT 6 In 1701–1702 writer and poet Peter Anthony Motteux collaborated with composer John Eccles, Master of the King’s 7 Musick, in writing the ode for King William III’s birthday. Eccles’s autograph manuscript is listed in the British 8 library manuscript catalogue as ‘Ode for the King’s Birthday, 1703; in score by John Eccles’ and is accompanied 9 by a claim that the ode had already reached folio 10v when William died, requiring the words to be amended to 10 suit his successor, Queen Anne. A closer inspection of this manuscript reveals that much more of the ode had been 11 completed before the king’s death, and that much more than the words ‘king’ and ‘William’ was amended to suit 12 a succeeding monarch of a different gender and nationality. The work was performed before Queen Anne on her 13 birthday in 1703 and the words were published shortly afterwards. Discrepancies between the printed text and 14 that in Eccles’s score indicate that no fewer than three versions of the text were devised during the creative process. 15 These versions raise issues of authority with respect to poet and composer. A careful analysis of the manuscript’s 16 paper types and rastrology reveals a collaborative process of re-engineering that was, in fact, applied to an already 17 completed work.
    [Show full text]
  • George Frideric Handel
    INTERNATIONALE HÄNDEL-FESTSPIELE KARLSRUHE GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL SEMELE Jennifer France • Ed Lyon • Katharine Tier • Terry Wey Deutsche Händel-Solisten conducted by Christopher Moulds Staged by Floris Visser GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL SEMELE Conductor Christopher Moulds Orchestra Deutsche Händel-Solisten Chorus Händel Festspielchor Chorus Master Carsten Wiebusch A fulminant opening of the International Handel festival Karlsruhe, Floris Visser’s staging of George Frideric Handel’s musical drama Semele brings Stage Director Floris Visser distinguished Handel specialists such as the Deutsche Händel-Solisten and the Händel Festspielchor together. Semele Jennifer France Jupiter Ed Lyon Labelled a piece “after the manner of an oratorio”, the dazzling Semele fuses Athamas Terry Wey elements of opera, oratorio and classical drama. Plot-wise, the German- Juno Katharine Tier British Baroque composer turned to Ovid’s Metamorphoses to tell the story of a mortal woman who is ruined by her obsession to belong to the Ino Dilara Baştar immortal gods: Princess Semele’s love for Jupiter, King of the gods, proves Iris Hannah Bradbury to be her downfall as Jupiter’s jealous wife plots against her, causing Jupiter Cadmus Edward Gauntt to kill Semele with his thunderbolts. Somnus Yang Xu Cupid Ilkin Alpay Handel clads rise and fall, love and jealousy in Baroque sounds, evoked by opulent choir movements. “An entertaining spectacle” (Badische Neueste Nachrichten), Visser’s captivating staging does justice to the dramatic plot. Video Director Sébastien Glas Conducted in a subtly nuanced and flawless manner Badische( Neueste Nachrichten) by Christopher Moulds, the Deutsche Händel-Solisten deliver Length: 175' a passionate and sophisticated interpretation of the Baroque composer’s Shot in HDTV 1080/50i music.
    [Show full text]
  • Presents Semele
    Presents __________________________________________________________________________ Semele By George Frideric Handel A RESOURCE PACK TO SUPPORT THE 2020 PRODUCTION The intention of this resource pack is to prepare students coming to see or taking part in tours or workshops focused on Semele Handel’s Semele Compiled by Callum Blackmore What is Opera? Opera is a type of theatre which combines drama, music, elements of dance or movement with exciting costumes and innovative set design. However, in opera, the actors are trained singers who sing their lines instead of speaking them. A librettist writes the libretto - the words that are to be sung, like a script. Often, the plots of the operas are taken from stories in books or plays. A composer writes the music for the singers and orchestra. An orchestra accompanies the singers. A conductor coordinates both the singers on stage and the musicians. An easy way to think of opera is a story told with music. In a lot of operas, the people on stage sing all the way through. Imagine having all your conversations by singing them! Opera Singers It takes a lot of training to become an opera singer. A lot of aspiring opera singers will take this route: Sing in choirs, volunteer for solos, take singing lessons, study singing and music at university, then audition for parts in operas. Opera singers hardly ever use a microphone, which means that they train their voices to be heard by audiences even over the top of orchestras. Singing opera can be very physical and tiring because of the effort that goes into making this very special sound.
    [Show full text]
  • Rev. William Davenant) Three Musical Settings of the Witches’ Scenes in Macbeth Survive
    Folger Shakespeare Library Performing Restoration Shakespeare 1. Manuscripts Macbeth (rev. William Davenant) Three musical settings of the witches’ scenes in Macbeth survive. The first, by Matthew Locke, only survives in fragmentary form (see printed sources below). The second, by John Eccles, dates from ca. 1694. The third setting, by Richard Leveridge, dates from ca. 1702 and was performed well into the 19th century. The Folger holds several important sources for the Macbeth music, as noted below. (Charteris 108) W.a.222-227 and W.b.554-564 Partbooks copied ca. 1800 with later additions. Volumes were used in, and probably compiled for, the Oxford University Music Room concerts. Leveridge’s Macbeth music appears in W.a.222-227 and W.b.554-561. (Charteris 115) W.b.529 Copied in the late eighteenth century. The first section consists of miscellaneous pieces, whereas the second section is devoted to Richard Leveridge’s Macbeth, which includes theatrical cues. (Charteris 117) W.b.531 Manuscript score with John Eccles’s Macbeth music. Copied from Lbl. Add. Ms. 12219 by Thomas Oliphant in the mid-nineteenth century. (Charteris 122) W.b.536 Manuscript score with Richard Leveridge’s Macbeth music. Copied in late eighteenth century. (Charteris 123) W.b.537 Manuscript score with Leveridge’s Macbeth music. Copied in the early eighteenth century with later additions. First owner of the manuscript was almost certainly the Drury Lane Theatre. (Charteris 126) W.b.540 Manuscript score with Leveridge’s Macbeth music. Copied in the mid-eighteenth century. (Charteris 131) W.b.548 Manuscript score with Leveridge’s Macbeth music.
    [Show full text]
  • John Travers: 18 Canzonets for Two and Three Voices (1746) Emanuel Rubin University of Massachusetts - Amherst
    University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Music & Dance Department Faculty Publication Music & Dance Series 2005 John Travers: 18 Canzonets for Two and Three Voices (1746) Emanuel Rubin University of Massachusetts - Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/music_faculty_pubs Part of the Music Commons Recommended Citation Rubin, Emanuel, "John Travers: 18 Canzonets for Two and Three Voices (1746)" (2005). Music & Dance Department Faculty Publication Series. 3. Retrieved from https://scholarworks.umass.edu/music_faculty_pubs/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Music & Dance at ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Music & Dance Department Faculty Publication Series by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. John Travers’ Canzonets and their Georgian Context Emanuel Rubin, University of Massachusetts As the Baroque drew to a close, England’s native composers, outmaneuvered by foreigners who dominated the opera and concert stage, found a voice of their own by tapping into the rich tradition of Elizabethan and Restoration part song. John Travers’ delightful collection of canzonets for two and three voices with continuo is typical of this neglected body of music, and it should disabuse musicians once and for all of the canard that there was “no English music after Purcell.” At the historical moment when abstract instrumental music was taking continental Europe by storm, the English, with their long-standing admiration of poetry and song, devoted their energy to cultivation of cleverly wrought part songs for highly skilled amateur singers. In that “Silver Age” of British poetry, lyrics by Addison, Chatterton, Johnson, MacPherson, Pope, Prior, Ramsay, Shenstone, and Smollett were lovingly set as witty canzonets, sentimental glees, and rowdy catches in a flowering of vocal ensemble compositions unmatched anywhere else.
    [Show full text]
  • Purcell King Arthur Semi-Staged Performance Tuesday 3 October 2017 7Pm, Hall
    Purcell King Arthur semi-staged performance Tuesday 3 October 2017 7pm, Hall Academy of Ancient Music AAM Choir Richard Egarr director/harpsichord Daisy Evans stage director Jake Wiltshire lighting director Thomas Lamers dramaturg Ray Fearon narrator Louise Alder soprano Mhairi Lawson soprano Reginald Mobley countertenor Charles Daniels tenor Ivan Ludlow baritone Ashley Riches bass-baritone Marco Borggreve Marco Rosie Purdie assistant stage director Jocelyn Bundy stage manager Hannah Walmsley assistant stage manager There will be one interval of 20 minutes after Part 1 Part of Barbican Presents 2017–18 Part of Academy of Ancient Music 2017–18 Generously supported by the Geoffrey C Hughes Charitable Trust as part of the AAM Purcell Opera Cycle Confectionery and merchandise including organic ice cream, quality chocolate, nuts and nibbles are available from the sales points in our foyers. Please turn off watch alarms, phones, pagers etc during the performance. Taking photographs, capturing images or using recording devices during a performance is strictly prohibited. If anything limits your enjoyment please let us know The City of London during your visit. Additional feedback can be given Corporation is the founder and online, as well as via feedback forms or the pods principal funder of located around the foyers. the Barbican Centre Welcome Tonight marks the second instalment in a directly to a modern audience in the Brexit three-year series of semi-stagings of Purcell era. The subject of national identity – works, co-produced by the Barbican and central to King Arthur – has never seemed Academy of Ancient Music. Following a more pertinent. hugely successful Fairy Queen last season, AAM Music Director Richard Egarr and This piece contains some of Purcell’s stage director Daisy Evans once again most visit and beautiful music – including combine in this realisation of Purcell’s the celebrated aria ‘Fairest isle’ – and King Arthur.
    [Show full text]
  • Dramatic Themes in John Eccles's 1707 Setting of William Congreve's Semele
    Dramatic Themes in John Eccles's 1707 Setting of William Congreve's Semele Robert T. Kelley 2003 Introduction Anthony Rooley (2002) has asserted that \Eccles awaits the searching light of unbiased study and, particularly, informed performance." In this talk, I attempt to engage in such a study of Eccles's Semele. This opera is rich with interpretive possibilities and subtext, and I will present an analysis of the music that supports a view of the opera as a dramatically unified whole. This supports Rooley's musicological contention that \Here Congreve and the composer John Eccles worked very closely together, as they had for over a decade, and must have discussed at endless length their combined approach to creating this piece of music theatre." In an analysis that highlights the relationship between Congreve's text and Eccles's music, I will discuss musical connections that can help listeners uncover this opera's dramatic fusion of text and music. The first manner in which the music supports the drama is in the Baroque figures that accompany certain themes or dramatic situations in the opera. The second way that the music supports the text and stage action is through the work's key scheme. According to the Baroque doctrine of affections, different keys are associated with different passions. The qualities of the keys, which are highlighted by the 1 tuning of the Baroque keyboard instruments accompanying the ensemble, serve to highlight character development throughout the opera. This study reveals subtle dramatic subtext that is enhanced by the musical setting of the text and that suggests interpretive possibilities in the staging and musical performance.
    [Show full text]
  • Composing After the Italian Manner: the English Cantata 1700-1710
    University of Richmond UR Scholarship Repository Music Faculty Publications Music 2014 Composing after the Italian Manner: The nE glish Cantata 1700-1710 Jennifer Cable University of Richmond, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.richmond.edu/music-faculty-publications Part of the Composition Commons Recommended Citation Cable, Jennifer. "Composing after the Italian Manner: The nE glish Cantata 1700-1710." In The Lively Arts of the London Stage: 1675-1725, edited by Kathryn Lowerre, 63-83. Farnham: Ashgate, 2014. This Book Chapter is brought to you for free and open access by the Music at UR Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Music Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of UR Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Chapter 4 Composing after the Italian Manner: The English Cantata 1700-1710 Jennifer Cable Charles Gildon, in addressing the state of the arts in his 1710 publication The Life of Mr. Thomas Betterton, the Late Eminent Tragedian, offered the following observation concerning contemporary music and, in particular, the music of Henry Purcell: Music, as well as Verse, is subject to that Rule of Horace; He that would have Spectators share his Grief, Must write not only well, but movingly. 1 According to Gildon, the best judges of music were the 'Masters ofComposition', and he called on them to be the arbiters of whether the taste in music had been improved since Purcell's day.2 However, Gildon's English 'masters of composition' were otherwise occupied, as they were just beginning to come to terms with what was surely a concerning, if not outright frustrating, situation.
    [Show full text]
  • Purcell, Locke, Blow & Gibbons
    b0087_WH booklet template.qxd 17/04/2017 17:13 Page 1 The English Concert Harry Bicket Rosemary Joshua Sarah Connolly Purcell, Locke, Blow & Gibbons b0087_WH booklet template.qxd 17/04/2017 17:13 Page 2 The English Concert Harry Bicket director, harpsichord, organ Rosemary Joshua soprano Sarah Connolly mezzo-soprano Recorded live at Wigmore Hall, London, on 10 March 2015 Matthew Locke (c.1622–1677) Suite from The Tempest (1674), Part 1, Nos. I–V 01 The First Musick: Introduction 00.54 02 The First Musick: Galliard 01.19 03 The First Musick: Gavot 00.46 04 The Second Musick: Saraband 03.31 05 The Second Musick: Lilk 00.46 henry PurceLL (1659–1695) 06 If music be the food of love Z379b 1st setting/1st version (?1691/2) 01.58 07 Draw near, you lovers Z462 (1683) 03.51 08 Oh! the sweet delights of love 01.50 (a duet for the two Wood-Gods) from Dioclesian Z627 (1690) Matthew Locke Suite from The Tempest Part 2, Nos. VI–XI 09 The Second Musick: Curtain Tune 04.18 10 The Second Musick: The First Act Tune ‘Rustick Air’ 01.08 11 The Second Musick: The Second Act Tune ‘Minoit’ 00.43 12 The Second Musick: The Third Act Tune ‘Corant’ 01.00 13 The Second Musick: The Fourth Act Tune ‘A Martial Jigge’ 01.14 14 The Second Musick: The Conclusion ‘A Canon 4 in 2’ 01.48 2 b0087_WH booklet template.qxd 17/04/2017 17:13 Page 3 henry PurceLL 15 Music for a while from Oedipus Z583/2 (?1692) 03.57 16 Oh! fair Cedaria hide those eyes Z402 (?c.1689–92) 04.05 17 My dearest, my fairest from Pausanias, the Betrayer of his Country Z585 (1695–6) 02.07 John BLow (1649–1708)
    [Show full text]
  • THE METAMORPHOSIS of SEMELE the Transformation of the Characterisation of Semele from Ovid to Handel
    THE METAMORPHOSIS OF SEMELE The Transformation of the Characterisation of Semele from Ovid to Handel VICTORIA MARIE MOSTUE Supervised by Prof. Han Lamers SUBMITTED FOR THE MASTER’S DEGREE IN CLASSICAL LANGUAGES (LATIN) – LAT4190 DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY, CLASSICS, HISTORY OF ART AND IDEAS FACULTY OF HUMANITIES UNIVERSITY OF OSLO SPRING 2020 “In Semele, European music achieved its most complete Ovidian masterpiece.” Charles Martindale, Ovid Renewed, 10 Abstract The ancient mythological figure Semele, mother of Bacchus, appears in innumerous works from antiquity to modern time. Two such works are Ovid’s epic poem the Metamorphoses and Handel’s oratorio Semele. Although the latter is based on the former, its characterisation of Semele has been greatly altered from that of its source material. This thesis therefore examines the relationship between how Semele is characterised in the Metamorphoses and in Semele in order to see the oratorio in a clearer light. The study argues that although there are significant differences between the two works’ characterisation of Semele, close literary analysis of their portrayals reveals several similarities. It also includes a discussion on whether the characterisation of Semele in the oratorio is caused its creators desire to convey a particular message. Furthermore, this thesis places the oratorio in a wider context by analysing other ancient texts in which Semele appears and by tracing the chain of receptions. From this it is evident that several of Semele’s characteristics in the oratorio which are not present in the Metamorphoses or other ancient texts can be found in some of the post- classical works which preceded Semele.
    [Show full text]