Purcell: The Fairy Queen / Harrhy, Nelson, Priday, Smith, Thomas, Varcoe, Gardiner

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com essential recording
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

Purcell: The Fairy Queen / Harrhy, Nelson, Priday, Smith, Thomas, Varcoe, Gardiner, Music, Henry Purcell, John Eliot Gardiner, Eiddwen Harrhy, Elisabeth Priday, English Baroque Soloists, Judith Nelson, Jennifer Smith, Timothy Penrose, Ashley Stafford, Wynford Evans, Martyn Hill, David Thomas, Baroque Incidental Music for Orchestra and Voices (or Sem, Classical, Classical Music, Opera / Operetta / Oratorio, Opera/Operetta, Vocal

Purcell: The Fairy Queen / Harrhy, Nelson, Priday, Smith, Thomas, Varcoe, Gardiner
Average customer rating:

Welcome to the Fairy World

Fabulous

As beautiful as a summer moon

I loved this music...

Purcell: The Fairy Queen / Harrhy, Nelson, Priday, Smith, Thomas, Varcoe, Gardiner
Henry Purcell , John Eliot Gardiner , Eiddwen Harrhy , Elisabeth Priday , English Baroque Soloists , Judith Nelson , Jennifer Smith , Timothy Penrose , Ashley Stafford , Wynford Evans , Martyn Hill , and David Thomas
Manufacturer: Archiv Produktion
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Purcell, Henry | ( P ) | Featured Composers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music
Incidental Music | Theatrical, Incidental & Program Music | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music
General | Purcell, Henry | Composers | Baroque (c.1600-1750) | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music
General | Baroque (c.1600-1750) | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music
General | Classical | Styles | Music
General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
Operettas | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
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ASIN: B0000057CU
Release Date: 1990-10-25

Tracks:

The Fairy Queen: First Music: Prelude
The Fairy Queen: First Music: Hornpipe
The Fairy Queen: Second Music: Air
The Fairy Queen: Second Music: Rondeau
The Fairy Queen: Second Music: Overture
The Fairy Queen: Act I: Song In Two Parts: 'Come, Come, Come, Let Us Leave The Town'
The Fairy Queen: Act I: Scene Of The Drunken Poet: 'Fill Up The Bowl'
The Fairy Queen: Act I: First Act Tune: Jig
The Fairy Queen: Act II: Prelude And Song: 'Come All Ye Songsters Of The Sky'
The Fairy Queen: Act II: Prelude
The Fairy Queen: Act II: Trio: 'May The God Of Wit Inspire'
The Fairy Queen: Act II: Echo
The Fairy Queen: Act II: Chorus: 'Now Joyn Your Warbling Voices All'
The Fairy Queen: Act II: A Dance Of Fairies
The Fairy Queen: Act II: Song And Chorus: 'Sing While We Trip It On The Green'
The Fairy Queen: Act II: Song: 'See, Even Night Herself Is Here' (Night)
The Fairy Queen: Act II: Song: 'I Am Come To Lock All Fast' (Mystery)
The Fairy Queen: Act II: Song: 'One Charming Night' (Secresie)
The Fairy Queen: Act II: Song And Chorus: 'Hush, No More, Be Silent All' (Sleep)
The Fairy Queen: Act II: A Dance For The Followers Of Night
The Fairy Queen: Act II: Second Act Tune: Air
The Fairy Queen: Act III: A Song In Two Parts And Chorus: 'If Love's A Swet Passion'
The Fairy Queen: Act III: Overture: Symphony While The Swans Come Forward
The Fairy Queen: Act III: Dance For The Fairies
The Fairy Queen: Act III: Dance For The Green Men
The Fairy Queen: Act III: Song: 'Ye Gentle Spirits Of The Air, Appear'
The Fairy Queen: Act III: Dialogue Between Coridon and Mopsa: 'Now The MAids And The Men'
The Fairy Queen: Act III: Song: 'When I Have Often Heard' (A Nymph)
The Fairy Queen: Act III: A Dance Of Haymakers
The Fairy Queen: Act III: Song And Chorus: 'A Thousand Thousand Ways We'll Find'
The Fairy Queen: Act III: Third Act Tune: Hornpipe

Tracks:

The Fairy Queen: Act IV: Symphony
The Fairy Queen: Act IV: Solo And Chorus: 'Now The Night Is Chac'd Away' (One Of The Attendants)
The Fairy Queen: Act IV: Duet: 'Let The Fifes, And The Clarions' (Two Others)
The Fairy Queen: Act IV: Entry Of Phoebus
The Fairy Queen: Act IV: Song: 'When A Cruel Long Winter' (Phoebus)
The Fairy Queen: Act IV: Song: 'Thus The Ever Grateful Spring' (Spring)
The Fairy Queen: Act IV: Song: 'Here's The Summer, Sprightly, Gay' (Summer)
The Fairy Queen: Act IV: Song: 'See My Many Colour'd Fields' (Autumn)
The Fairy Queen: Act IV: Song And Chorus: 'Now Winter Comes Slowly' (Winter)
The Fairy Queen: Act IV: Fourth Act Tune: Air
The Fairy Queen: Act V: Prelude
The Fairy Queen: Act V: Epithalamium: 'Thrice Happy Lovers' (Juno)
The Fairy Queen: Act V: The Plaint: 'O Let Me Weep'
The Fairy Queen: Act V: Entry Dance
The Fairy Queen: Act V: Symphony
The Fairy Queen: Act V: Song: 'Thus The Gloomy World' (A Chinese Man)
The Fairy Queen: Act V: Solo And Chorus: 'Thus Happy And Free' (Chinese Woman)
The Fairy Queen: Act V: Song: 'Yes, Daphne, In Your Looks I Find' (Chinese Man)
The Fairy Queen: Act V: Monkeys' Dance
The Fairy Queen: Act V: Song: 'Hark How All Things' (1st Woman)
The Fairy Queen: Act V: Song And Chorus: 'Hark Now The Echoing Air' (2nd Woman)
The Fairy Queen: Act V: Duet And Chorus: 'Sure The Dull God Of Marriage' (Both Women)
The Fairy Queen: Act V: Prelude
The Fairy Queen: Act V: Solo: 'See, See, I Obey' (Hymen)
The Fairy Queen: Act V: Duet: 'Turn Then Thine Eyes' (Both Women)
The Fairy Queen: Act V: Solo: 'My Torch, Indeed' (Hymen)
The Fairy Queen: Act V: Trio: 'They Shall Be As Happy' (Both Women, Hymen)
The Fairy Queen: Act V: Air
The Fairy Queen: Act V: Chorus: 'They Shall Be As Happy'
The Fairy Queen: Act V: Chaconne: Dance For Chinese Man And Woman

Amazon.com essential recording

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

Customer Reviews:

Welcome to the Fairy World.......2007-03-23

This music is enchanting and captivating. Purcell's style in semi opera gives life to A Midsummer Night's Dream, captivating the listener with imagination of far off realms. One can only imagine that he was able to visit other realms himself, to have created this music. It is beautiful.

Henry Purcell is a composer that should be recognized more for his contribution

Fabulous.......2007-01-14

This contains some of the most sublime music ever written and the performances are tremendous. Highly recommended.

As beautiful as a summer moon.......2002-08-05

In this semi-opera, Henry Purcell brings the new English era after the Puritan Commonwealth to an ever more complete fullness. He goes back to Shakespeare to get his story and transforms it into a prodigy of beauty. He sure changes a few things. It is no longer the pure song of the beauty of love, but the clear hymn of the beauty of marriage. Hymen comes on to celebrate the victory of constant and faithful matrimony, based on love for sure, but not governed by it. The fairies and their queen are no longer pure sprites springing out from the woods and forests, but they lead us to a new garden of Eden, represented by the richness of a Chinese garden, the three weddings and the six spouses being represented by six vases containing six orangetrees, a full promise of fruitful unions. Shakespeare has been christianised and all the fairy tale has become civilised. We may consider that Shakespeare is more often looking for entertainment than for moral advancement. Here we definitely are looking for the latter. We are politically and culturally digesting the puritan revolution. The second achievement of Purcell is the density of the music in the « corrected » play. We don't know who corrected it, but the songs and the music are definitely essential for the message to go through, for the show to be entertaining, for the medium to become fascinating. We are reaching here a new phase in the dramatic development of the English stage. John Eliot Gardiner who conducts this music gives it such a high level of lightness, clearness, dramatic expressivity, richness that the music transcends any distance through many centuries to reach us and sound as modern as it can, to speak to us as if we were inside the score, on the stage, taking part in the various dances and songs. He literally absorbs us into the performance. We are with thr musicians and the singers and this sensation of inclusion gives us a tremendous level of pleasure. In other words the music is never distant or cold, but always as hot as a golden potato that is there to satisfy our hunger with its nourishment. And it sure does.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

I loved this music..........2000-12-12

Well, a few years ago I heard some excerpts from Purcell's Fairy Queen and instantly fell in love. This is one of the most underrated masterpieces of all time. Gardiner's direction is good, and the soloists are all great. However, I do have a small reservation about this recording. Although Gardiner is known for conducting at fast tempos, a couple of the arias from this recording struck me as not being fast enough. In any case, you won't be disappointed though, with Jennifer Smith's gorgeous coloratura and Archiv's digital sound, I could listen to "Thus the ever grateful spring" and "Hark how all things" all day. And, of course, Eiddwen Harrhy gives us an extremely beautiful (but somewhat lacking in dramatic effect) "Hark now the echoing air."

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