Purcell: The Fairy Queen

Purcell: The Fairy Queen

This 1981 recording was the first period-instrument version of Purcell's most famous "semi-opera." This Restoration-era hybrid was a play with a complete (spoken) script plus numerous musical numbers for soloists, chorus, and pit orchestra. The Fairy Queen is based on Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, although you'd never know it from the music, which has (typically for the genre) no real connection to the plot. (Most of the songs and dances are masques performed for the entertainment of Titania, Oberon, or Hippolytus.) The advantage to this is that Purcell's score can be performed fairly well on its own. The Fairy Queen includes some of Purcell's best-loved comic scenes ("The Drunken Poet" and "Coridon and Mopsa") and songs ("Hark the echoing Air," "Ye gentle spirits," and "Hark how all things in one sound rejoice"--the last sung here by Jennifer Smith, sounding more beautiful than on any recording she's made since). Other highlights include the "Masque of the Four Seasons" and an allegory wherein Night, Mystery, Secrecy, and Sleep appear to sing Titania to her rest. Standouts from a solid cast include sweet-voiced, nimble soprano Judith Nelson and baritone Stephen Varcoe, whose solos as Winter and as Night are breathtaking. --Matthew Westphal

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