Henry Purcell's Fairy Queen from Glyndebourne: Semi-Opera Made Whole, at Last, by Larry Wallach
a semi-opera by Henry Purcell
BAM March 25, 2010
based on Shakespeare’s
Produced by Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Opéra Comique, Théâtre de Caen, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music
Musical direction by William Christie with Les Arts Florissants
Chorus master François Bazola
Stage direction by Jonathan Kent
Set and costumes by Paul Brown
Choreography by Kim Brandstrup
The life and career of Henry Purcell (1659-1695), the colossal figure who dominates the history of English music, occurred at the chronological mid-point of the Baroque, a period whose leading and most distinguishing genre is opera. And yet, opera never took root as a native product in English cultural soil. For that it had to wait until Purcell’s distant successor, Benjamin Britten, appeared on the scene two hundred and fifty years later. Twenty years after Purcell’s death, Handel arrived with his succession of exotic opera singers: Italian divas and castrati who swooped in like birds of paradise warbling their outlandish roulades and then vanished. The taste for such entertainment lasted at the most 25 years. Meanwhile, Purcell wrote only one true opera, a tiny gem that was held to be the only crown jewel for centuries, the miniature Dido and Aeneas
