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| | | Subject: Very Stange......................
Posted Aug 21, 2002 by Alfredo
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1
 | | "Very strange" was my first reaction when I read the summary of the works of Purcell.
Do we know the famous song "If love is sweet passion"??.
Most of us who have any love for Purcell do know it.I'm sure.
It's from the semi-opera "The fairy Queen".
Scince 1995 there is a performance of this opera by the choreographer Quinny Sacks, with the orchestra and chorus of The English National Opera.(it's on DVD).
Beautifull in many ways.
The choreographer Mark Morris made a performance of Dido and Aeneas, where there is room for laughter interwoven with other emotions.
And we know the semi-opera's Dioclesian,The Indian Queen and
King Arthur with that astonishing "fairest Isle" .
We know The Tempest; Try to listen to;
"Halcyon days, now wars are ending. You shall find wherever you sail.
Tritons all the while attending, with a kind and gentle gale".
and the respons of Neptune;
"See, see the heavens smile. With clouds no more overcast. In this now happy Isle are all your sorrows past.
And in the end; Amphitrite and Neptune; "no stars again shall hurt you from above, but all your days shall pass in peace and love.
Chorus; No stars again shall hurt you from above, but all your days shall end in peace and love".
My love for the English language was born because of these songs.
The H2G2 description of a part of the works of Henry Purcell was correct, but for me it felt as driscribing a woman by telling that she had one real leg, one arm, a voice and eyes and that she died five days later than the Queen she served.
Purcell made mány songs and plays and music for theatrical ceremonies like a crowning, funerals, birthes,etc. and that deserves more comprehensive report.
And to me this "woman" sings from the bottom of her heart, sounds like a blackbird in the dead of night, puts her arms around you asif you are her adopted child, cries as if your wounds are hers and she can laugh and swear as if she comes right out of a brothel.
And if you still have your doubt about this "Woman"= Purcells Work.
Sit down and listen to her story of "King Arthur" and in the end your soul will feel pain in returning to daily life.
It's a most theatrical, colourful and warmhearted woman who has many , many wapons to lure our hearts, although not áll that we hear and feel is her "Musick's Hand - Maid" .But a woman of such style
always knows how to use her recources around her...
P.S. Does anyone knwo more technical details of the film "England, my England" over the life of Henry Purcell. I mean; is it on viedo and/or DVD. In Holland I haven't seen it.
"Retired from any mortal's sight", Alfredo, Amsterdam
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