Details
Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall
University of York
York
YO10 5DD
England
Programme
Henry Purcell – The Fairy Queen, Z.629
Performers
Bethany Seymour – soprano
Matthew Brook – Bass
Peter Seymour – Director
Jason Darnell – Narrator
Yorkshire Baroque Soloists
Other concerts in this Series (+)
Programme Note
Purcell’s 1692 semi-opera The Fairy Queen is among his greatest compositions, serving up some of his best-known and spectacular solos, dialogues and choruses and a colourful orchestral accompaniment. A loose adaptation of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, its cast includes fairies (led by Oberon and Titania), an ‘Indian Boy’, fawns, dryads, savages, Phoebus, the rustics Corydon & Mopsa, Juno, Hymen, and a ‘Chinese man and woman’. From humorous scenes and elaborate masques, this is dazzling music for dazzling forces. The performance features a brilliant and entertaining rhyming narration, specially prepared for the occasion by Andrew Pinnock.