476 2879

Henry Purcell

PINCHGUT OPERA MACLIVER • RUSSELL • ALLEN • McMAHON • BENNETT

CANTILLATION • ORCHESTRA OF THE ANTIPODES • WALKER

476 2879

ANTIPODES is a sub-label of ABC Classics

devoted to the historically informed

performance of music from the Renaissance,

Baroque and Classical periods.

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The Fairy Queen was first performed in the spring of 1692 at the Dorset

Garden Theatre, London. It was revived and revised in 1693.

This edition by Erin Helyard.

Sara Macliver soprano

Sally-Anne Russell mezzo-soprano

Jamie Allen tenor

Paul McMahon tenor

Stephen Bennett bass

Miriam Allan soprano

Belinda Montgomery soprano

Alison Morgan soprano

Jenny Duck-Chong mezzo-soprano

Brett Weymark tenor

Corin Bone baritone

Simon Lobelson baritone

Cantillation

Orchestra of the Antipodes (on period instruments)

Antony Walker conductor

Henry Purcell 1659-1695

Libretto probably by

Thomas Betterton after

William Shakespeare’s

A Midsummer

Night’s Dream

Libretto probably by

Thomas Betterton after

William Shakespeare’s

A Midsummer

Night’s Dream

Henry Purcell 1659-1695

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CD 1 [73’40]

First Music

1 Prelude 1’442 Hornpipe 0’57

Second Music

3 Aire 0’474 Rondeaux 1’49

Act I

5 Overture 2’39

6 Song in Two Parts: Come, come, come, let us leave the Town 2’06Miriam Allan soprano, Corin Bone baritone

7 Scene of the Drunken Poet: Fill up the Bowl 5’33Sara Macliver soprano, Sally-Anne Russell mezzo-soprano, Simon Lobelson baritone

8 Music for a while (from Oedipus) 3’32Sally-Anne Russell mezzo-soprano

9 First Act Tune: Jig 0’56

Act II

0 Prelude and Song: Come all ye Songsters of the Sky 2’18Jamie Allen tenor

! Trio: May the God of Wit inspire 2’39Paul McMahon, Brett Weymark tenors, Corin Bone baritone

@ Echo 2’01

£ Chorus: Now joyn your Warbling Voices all 2’45Song and Chorus: Sing while we trip it upon the GreenBelinda Montgomery sopranoDance for Faierys

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$ Song: See, even Night herself is here 5’14Alison Morgan soprano

% Song: I am come to lock all fast 1’31Sally-Anne Russell mezzo-soprano

^ Song: One charming Night 2’21Jamie Allen tenor

& Song and Chorus: Hush, no more, be silent, all 4’47Stephen Bennett bass

* A Dance for the Followers of Night 1’44( Second Act Tune: Aire 1’17

Act III

) A Song in Two Parts and Chorus: If Love’s a Sweet Passion 5’26Sara Macliver soprano

¡ Symphony while the Swans come forward 1’48

™ Dance for the Faierys 0’53

# Dance for the Green Men 1’37

¢ Song: Ye gentle Spirits of the Air, appear 6’17Sara Macliver soprano

∞ Dialogue between Corydon and Mopsa: Now the Maids and the Men 3’42Jamie Allen tenor, Stephen Bennett bass

§ A Dance for the Haymakers 0’48

¶ Song: When I have often heard 3’29Miriam Allan soprano

• Song and Chorus: A Thousand Thousand ways we’ll find 2’03Jamie Allen tenor, Stephen Bennett bass

ª Third Act Tune: Hornpipe 0’57

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CD 2 [70’07]

Act IV

1 Symphony – Canzona 2’10

2 Largo 1’29

3 Allegro 0’57

4 Adagio – Allegro 0’57

5 Solo and Chorus: Now the Night is chas’d away 1’59Belinda Montgomery soprano

6 Duet: Let the Fifes, and the Clarions 1’31Paul McMahon, Brett Weymark tenors

7 Entry of Phoebus 3’43Song: When a Cruel long WinterJamie Allen tenor

8 Chorus: Hail! Great Parent of us all 2’07

9 Song: Thus the ever Grateful Spring 2’11Miriam Allan soprano

0 Song: Here’s the Summer, Sprightly, Gay 1’49Jenny Duck-Chong mezzo-soprano

! Song: See my many Colour’d Fields 3’14Paul McMahon tenor

@ Song: Next, Winter comes Slowly 2’37Stephen Bennett bass

£ Chorus: Hail! Great Parent of us all 2’07

$ Fourth Act Tune: Aire 1’01

Act V

% Prelude 1’06

^ Epithalamium: Thrice happy Lovers 3’15Sara Macliver soprano

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& The Plaint: O let me weep 8’04Sally-Anne Russell mezzo-soprano

* Entry Dance 1’24

( Symphony 1’22

) Song: Thus the gloomy World 5’11Jamie Allen tenor

¡ Solo and Chorus: Thus Happy and Free 1’36Belinda Montgomery soprano

™ Song: Yes, Daphne, in your Looks I find 2’53Jamie Allen tenor

# Monkeys’ Dance 0’48

¢ Song: Hark! how all Things 1’58Sally-Anne Russell mezzo-soprano

∞ Song and Chorus: Hark! the Echoing Air 2’29Sara Macliver soprano

§ Duet and Chorus: Sure the dull God of Marriage 3’18Sara Macliver soprano, Sally-Anne Russell mezzo-soprano

¶ Solo: See, see, I obey 3’48Stephen Bennett bass

Duet: Turn then thine EyesSara Macliver soprano, Sally-Anne Russell mezzo-soprano

Solo: My Torch, indeedStephen Bennett bass

• Chacone: Dance for the Chinese Man and Woman 2’51

ª Trio and Chorus: They shall be as happy 2’13Sara Macliver soprano, Sally-Anne Russell mezzo-soprano, Stephen Bennett bass

Total Playing Time 143’47

collaborated with Purcell earlier on thesuccessful Dioclesian. English opera at this timehad not yet embraced the Italian model ofcontinuous singing, that is, of arias interspersedwith recitative. Dido and Aeneas is thereforegenerally accepted to be Purcell’s only operathat befits the Italian model. The Fairy Queen(together with Purcell’s three other contributionsin this genre: Dioclesian, King Arthur and TheIndian Queen) is essentially a play with music.(In modern performances, the spoken dialogueis generally dispensed with, as it is in thisrecording.) This type of entertainment demandeda special type of performer who could act asequally well as sing, and London boasted thefinest ‘Singing Actors and Actresses’ of thetime. The fame of Mr Mountfort, Mrs Butler, MrsAyliff, Mrs Dyer, Mrs Bracegirdle, Mr Freemanand Mr Pate was well known and London lovednothing more than to gossip about thesecolourful characters. The only comparableperformers in Europe were probably the multi-talented entertainers who specialised in thefamed Intermezzi of Naples. Roger North,writing around 1700, says of the genre that‘[Betterton] contrived a sort of plays, which werecalled Operas, but had bin more properly styledSemioperas, for they consisted of half Musick,and half Drama’ – for North they were ‘ambigueentertainments’. Dryden, when describing KingArthur, used the term ‘dramatick opera’; more

recently, the opera scholar Judith Milhous hascalled them ‘multimedia spectaculars’.

Purcell seems to have been in the middle ofmoving house when rehearsals for The FairyQueen had started at Dorset Garden in thespring of 1692. The cast included the famed MrsAyliff (about whom The Gentleman’s Journal said,‘Had you heard it sung by Mrs. Ayliff you wouldhave own’d that there is no pleasure like thatwhich good Notes, when so divinely sung, canCreate’), the 18-year-old Mrs Dyer, Mr Freeman,who was frequently paired by Purcell with atrumpet, Mr Reading, Mr Pate, who sang Mopsa‘in womans habit’, and Mrs Butler, who wasadmired for her dancing and light, ‘airy’ songs.

It was an expensive and glittering production –some £3000 was spent on it. The Gentleman’sJournal reported in May: ‘The OPERA of which Ihave spoke to you in my former hath at lastappear’d, and continues to be represented daily;it is call’d The Fairy Queen. The Drama isoriginally Shakespears, the Music andDecorations are extraordinary. I have heard theDances commended, and without doubt thewhole is very entertaining.’ John Downes, whowas the Dorset Garden Theatre prompter at thetime, reported later that the ‘Ornaments weresuperior to the other Two [King Arthur andDioclesian]; especially in Cloaths, for all theSingers and Dancers, Scenes, Machines, andDecorations, all most profusely set off; and

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About The Fairy Queen

It had been three years since the GloriousRevolution of 1688 and the ascension of Williamand Mary of Orange to the throne. The war withFrance was not going well – Louis XVI had takenthe important fortress-town of Mons in thesouthern Netherlands while 50,000 alliedsoldiers had fruitlessly waited in Brussels forSpanish transports that never arrived. It is littlewonder that King William, returning to London inanger, had little time for music. With the Court’smusical forces already drastically reduced in sizeby an edict of May 1690, many musiciansattached to the Court now found themselveswithout a salary and so were forced to findemployment elsewhere. For London musiciansof the time, this generally meant working in atheatre band.

The two great London theatres in the 1690swere the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane and theDuke of York’s Theatre in Dorset Garden. It wasgenerally accepted that the Dorset GardenTheatre was the more lavishly decorated (eventhe benches were covered in cloth), and as wellas being larger than Drury Lane, the main façadewas on the Thames itself, where patrons couldarrive by boat. Reputedly designed byChristopher Wren, the theatre boasted aproscenium arch decorated with carvings byGrinling Gibbons. It probably seated 500 peoplefairly comfortably, with two tiers of boxes thatheld 20 persons apiece. The distinguished actor,impresario and author Thomas Betterton had

rooms above the theatre and there was a livelycommunity of actors, singers and courtmusicians based in the area.

Henry Purcell, a ‘Musitian for the private Musick’of the King since 1689, had been turning hisattentions from the court to the theatre forsome time. The court, concerned with anunpopular King and a fractious war, was notparticularly interested in musical entertainmentsapart from those required by the court calendar.Purcell must have increasingly found that thetheatre supplemented an uncertain income andcertainly the successful productions ofDioclesian and King Arthur had firmlyestablished his reputation as a theatrecomposer. In January of 1692 it was reported inThe Gentleman’s Journal that the spectacularsuccess of King Arthur was going to be followedup with something new. ‘Now I speak of Music Imust tell you that we shall have speedily a NewOpera, wherein something very surprising ispromised us; Mr. Purcel who joyns to theDelicacy and Beauty of the Italian way, theGraces and Gayety of the French, composes theMusic, as he hath done for the Prophetess[Dioclesian], and the last Opera called KingArthur, which hath been plaid several times lastMonth.’ The new opera was The Fairy Queen.

We do not know who adapted Shakespeare’s AMidsummer Night’s Dream as a libretto – mostlikely it was Thomas Betterton, who had

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excellently perform’d, chiefly the Instrumentaland Vocal part Compos’d by the said Mr. Purcel,and Dances by Mr. Priest. The Court and Townwere wonderfully satisfy’d with it; but theExpences in setting it out being so great, theCompany got very little by it.’ Judith Milhous hasdemonstrated that the company had investedhalf to two-thirds of its ordinary annual operatingbudget in The Fairy Queen, but that theyprobably recouped their expenditure over time.This would explain why 1693 saw revivals of TheFairy Queen rather than productions of a newlycomposed opera. Roger North, writing in the1690s and again in the 1720s, vividlyremembered one particular moment in theproduction – that part where Sleep sings, ‘Hush,no more, be silent, all.’ Chords separated bysilences have ‘great efficacy when well used,especially when the musick is lowd,’ as can beshown in ‘some passages in our opera musick of Mr. Purcel’:

... when upon a disorder in swift musickexpres’t, [Sleep] comes in, and in a lowd basesings: Hush – peace – silence – &c. with fullsemibriefs pauses.

It is the silences that North remembers: ‘Yourfancy carrys the ratle of the instruments intothose vacant spaces [while] the subject andefficacy of the representation takes hold of yourpassion...Even [the] silence kept the time...[theeffect having] a majesty in musick I have notobserved in any I ever met with.’

Sometime after Purcell’s death, the theatre copyof the opera went missing – a reward wasoffered in 1701 to whoever could bring it back toMr Zachary Baggs. For 19th-century scholars TheFairy Queen was only known by the printedlibretto together with some isolated musicalnumbers found in Orpheus Britannicus and otherpublications. In 1901 it was rediscovered in thelibrary vaults of the Royal Academy of Music in acollection transmitted to R.J.S. Stevens throughWilliam Savage (who worked with Handel). ThePurcell Society first published a complete editionin 1903. A new edition has been speciallyprepared from a facsimile of this manuscript forPinchgut Opera’s live performances and thisstudio recording.

The Fairy Queen is one of Purcell’s mostinspired creations. From the opening First Musicwhich seems to dreamily conjure up the fantasyworld, through to the final brilliant Chacone, oneof Purcell’s best, the entire opera has animmediacy of appeal that has led to itsbecoming one of Purcell’s most popular works.Purcell’s favourite compositional techniques arehere in abundance – the glorious conjoining ofthe French and Italian styles (the Rondeaux ofthe First Music; the grand Canzona that opensAct IV), his love of ground basses (‘Now theNight is chas’d away’; The Plaint; ‘Come all yeSongsters’), his expressive and unique setting ofwords to music (the scene of the Drunken Poet;the songs of the Four Seasons in Act IV; ‘If

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Love’s a Sweet Passion’) as well as the manyjoyful dances and scene changes (the Chacone;the Symphony while the Swans come forward;and the Dance for the Green Men).

The First Act Music takes us immediately intothe magical world, exhorting us to ‘come, let usleave the Town, And in some lonely place,Where Crowds and Noise were never known,Resolve to spend our Daies.’ The scene of theDrunken Poet is one of Purcell’s most brilliantcomic creations. He reproduces drunkenhiccupping and staggering footsteps and thetime signatures weave and bump along in amarvellously ‘inebriated’ manner. The wittylibretto lends much to this scene (‘If you willknow it, I am a scurvy Poet’ – the chorusresponds, ‘Pinch him for his Crimes, HisNonsense and his Dogrell Rhymes’!). It endswith a stroke of genius that reminds us of thesleeping drunks in Vivaldi’s Four Seasons – fourexquisitely rendered bars set to ‘Let ’em sleeptill break of Day.’

Probably sung by Mr Freeman, ‘Come all yeSongsters’ shows off Purcell’s great skill in thecomposition of ground basses – the ‘Songstersof the Sky’ are then exquisitely depicted by theorchestra over a repeating set of fourdescending notes. The ‘Echo’ chorus andsymphony, we can imagine, would have beenput to marvellous dramatic effect in the originalDorset Garden production. Mrs Ayliff originally

sang the dancy ‘Sing while we trip it’,characterised by its catchy ‘Scotch-snap’ rhythms(short-long). What follows is perhaps one of themost evocative and beautiful renderings of Nightever written – Purcell dispenses with the bassand directs the upper strings to put on their‘sourdines’ or mutes. Mystery curtly offers heropinion before Secresy (together with theseductive addition of ‘Fluttes’ or recorders) singsof the pleasures of love. Sleep interrupts in thefashion that so impressed Roger North. Purcellgoes one step further and immediately sets thesong for the chorus and orchestra. This inspiredtechnique, where a song with just the solo voiceand continuo is immediately followed by a lushsetting with the entire cast, is an endearingattribute of The Fairy Queen and does much tocontribute to its seemingly effortlessachievement of musical unity.

Act III opens with the well known and loved ‘IfLove’s a Sweet Passion’. A series of masquesleads to the other great comic scene, theDialogue between Corydon and Mopsa.Originally sung by Mr Reading and Mr Pate (indrag), this very funny scene survives in separatemanuscripts that may indicate some of theoriginal performance practices – at the close, theword ‘Pish’ is written above Mopsa’s part andwas probably spoken as she/he repeatedlyrejects Corydon’s lecherous advances.

Act IV opens with a splendidly ItalianateSymphony that contains a written-out Kettle

Although an employee of the Court for most ofhis life, Purcell seems to have been unaffectedby the change and political turmoil around him.He was a great musician and continued tocompose great music.

He was probably the child of Henry andElizabeth, though just possibly his father wasHenry’s brother, Thomas. Both brothers werecourt musicians so the young Henry joined thechoir of the Chapel Royal at seven or eight.When his voice broke in 1673 (that event is onthe official record) he became assistant and later principal keeper of the King’s wind andkeyboard instruments.

By 1677 he was a composer at the Court andbegan composing anthems and other churchmusic. In 1679 he became organist atWestminster Abbey. He began composing odesto St Cecilia in 1683 and produced several lovelytributes to the patron saint of musicians over thefollowing years.

The turmoil of James’ short reign seems not tohave affected Purcell’s output. The wonderfulode Sound the Trumpet, Beat the Drum waswritten for James’ birthday. The music of theCourt became less important during the jointreign of William and Mary but Purcell composedseveral songs in honour of the country’s firstpopular queen since Elizabeth, including thebeautiful Come, Ye Sons of Art and Welcome,Welcome Glorious Morn, both for her birthday.

Apparently needing a career change, between1688 and his death in 1695 Purcell wrote muchincidental music for the theatre as well as fivecomplete works for the stage, all except Didoand Aeneas being semi-operas – that is, amixture of song, masque, pantomime anddance. Dido was the only fully-sung opera. Themusic of other works, including King Arthur andThe Fairy Queen, does not suffer from beingless than opera. Also from this period are lovelysongs and odes such as Who Can from JoyRefrain? and Hail, Bright Cecilia.

It is probably untrue that Purcell died after beinglocked out by his wife following a night’sdrinking, as folklore has it. Most likely the causewas influenza or tuberculosis. Death wassudden and occurred on 21 November – the eveof St Cecilia’s Day. It was 218 years and one daylater – St Cecilia’s Day 1913 – that England’snext great composer and conductor of manyPurcell performances and recordings, BenjaminBritten, was born. Purcell was buried inWestminster Abbey where he lies today.

It is calculated that Purcell wrote a page ofmusic for every day of his life. We must begrateful but can still mourn for the music hewould have produced had he lived longer.

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Drums part – the five sections have Italianindications (unusual at the time) written abovethem in the manuscript (Symphony, Canzona,Largo, Allegro, Adagio, followed by a repeat ofthe Allegro). This is followed by an impressivehomage to the rising sun (with its grand andexpansive ground bass) that prefaces thedepiction of the Four Seasons. The festivechorus ‘Hail! Great Parent’, with its Trumpets,Kettle Drums and Hautboys, serves as thestructural mid-point of the opera and Act Vopens with a delightful sound picture of Junoentering ‘in a Machine drawn by Peacocks’. Shesings of the challenges of marriage, before ThePlaint, added by Purcell only in the 1693 revival.A ground-bass composition, The Plaint is awonderful example of how effectively andmovingly Purcell sets words to music (notice, forexample, his settings of ‘for ever, let me weep!’and ‘sigh my Soul away’).

The opera now includes other elements of thefantasy world. In the 1692 production an exoticChinese Man and Woman enter (though it isdoubtful that Purcell would ever have seen aChinese person). The original stage directionstells us that ‘the Scene is suddainly Illuminated,and discovers a transparent Prospect of aChinese Garden, the Architecture, the Trees, thePlants, the Fruits, the Birds, the Bowers, quitedifferent from what we have in this part of theWorld.’ The two sing of innocence and love andbeauty before two women enter and sing some

splendid songs with a solo trumpetaccompaniment. They try to conjure up Hymen,the ‘dull God of Marriage’ – he does not hearthem at first. The Chorus join in – ‘Appear!appear! Our Queen of Night commands thee notto stay’ – and thus Hymen is compelled to obey.The original libretto has the stage direction: ‘A Grand Dance begins of Twenty four Persons’ –the wondrous Chacone – before the two womenand Hymen join in a joyous trio echoed by thechorus: ‘They shall be as happy as they’re fair:Love shall fill all the Places of Care.’

Erin Helyard

Henry Purcell 1659-1695

Purcell lived in interesting times.Born (probably) a year after thedeath of the puritan Cromwelland a year before the restorationof the apparently ProtestantCharles II, he lived through the reigns of threemonarchs: Charles, the Catholic James II andthe definitely Protestant William and Mary. Bornand brought up in Westminster, he survived inchildhood the plague and the fire. During his lifeparliament asserted and established its powerover the Crown and what has been called theAge of Reason began. Newton defined the lawsof gravity, Habeas Corpus and the Bill of Rightswere adopted, England’s national debt beganand the Bank of England was set up.

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Alison Morgan Jenny Duck-Chong Brett Weymark

Corin Bone Simon Lobelson Antony Walker Anna McDonald

Alison Morgan Jenny Duck-Chong Brett Weymark

Corin Bone Simon Lobelson Antony Walker Anna McDonald

Sara Macliver Sally-Anne Russell Jamie Allen

Paul McMahon Stephen Bennett Miriam Allan

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Sara Macliver Sally-Anne Russell Jamie Allen

Paul McMahon Stephen Bennett Miriam Allan Belinda MontgomeryBelinda Montgomery

1716

Poet

I confess, I’m very poor.Nay prithee now, doe not pinch me so,Good dear Devill, let me go;And as I hope to wear the Bayes,I’ll write a Sonnet in thy Praise.

Chorus

Drive ’em hence, away, away,Let ’em sleep till break of Day.

Song*8 Music for a while

Shall all your cares beguile:Wond’ring how your pains were eas’dAnd disdaining to be pleas’dTill Alecto free the deadFrom their Eternal bands,Till the snakes drop from her headAnd the whip from out her hands.Music for a whileShall all your cares beguile.

9 First Act Tune: Jig

ACT TWO

0 Prelude

Song

Come all ye Songsters of the Sky,Wake, and Assemble in this Wood;But no ill-boding Bird be nigh,None but the Harmless and the Good.

Trio

! May the God of Wit inspireThe Sacred Nine to bear a part;And the Blessed Heav’nly Quire,Shew the utmost of their Art.While Echo shall in sounds remote,Repeat each Note, each Note, each Note.

@ Echo

Chorus

£ Now joyn your Warbling Voices all.

Fairy-Spirit and Chorus

Sing while we trip it upon the Green;But no ill Vapours rise or fall,No, nothing offend our faiery Queen.

Dance for Faierys

Night

$ See, even Night herself is here,To favour your Design,And all her Peaceful Train is near,That Men to Sleep incline.Let Noise and Care,Doubt and Despair,Envy and Spite,(The Fiend’s delight)Be ever Banish’d hence.Let soft ReposeHer Eyelids close,And murmuring Streams,Bring pleasing Dreams;Let nothing stay to give offence.

CD1

The Fairy Queen

First Music

1 Prelude

2 Hornpipe

Second Music

3 Aire

4 Rondeaux

ACT ONE

5 Overture

Young Lovers

6 Come, come, come, let us leave the Town,

And in some lonely place,

Where Crowds and Noise were never known,

Resolve to spend our Daies.

In Pleasant Shades upon the Grass,

At Night ourselves we’ll lay;

Our Daies in harmless Sports shall pass,

Thus Time shall slide away.

Poet

7 Fill up the Bowl, then.

First Fairy and Chorus

Trip it, trip it in a Ring;Around this Mortal Dance and Sing.

Poet

Enough, enough,We must play at Blind Man’s Buff.

Turn me round, and stand away,

I’ll catch whom I may.

Second Fairy and Chorus

About him go, so, so, so,

Pinch the Wretch from Top to Toe:

Pinch him forty, forty times,

Pinch till he confess his Crimes.

Poet

Hold, you damn’d tormenting Punk,

I do confess:

Both Fairies

What, what?

Poet

I’m Drunk, as I live, Boys, Drunk.

Both Fairies

What art thou, speak?

Poet

If you will know it,

I am a scurvy Poet.

Chorus

Pinch him, pinch him for his Crimes,

His Nonsense, and his Dogrell Rhymes.

Poet

Hold! Oh! Oh! Oh!

Both Fairies

Confess, more, more. * This insertion aria is specifically for this recording. Originally in C minor, the bass is unfigured in Orpheus Britannicus.The voice part has also been transposed an octave higher in this version.

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Mopsa

Why, how now, Sir Clown, what makes you so bold?I’d have ye to know I’m not made of that mold.I tell you again,Maids must never Kiss no Men.No, no: no Kissing at all;I’ll not Kiss, till I Kiss you for good and all.

Corydon

Not Kiss you at all?

Mopsa

No, no Kissing at all!

Corydon

Why no Kissing at all?

Mopsa

I’ll not Kiss, till I Kiss you for good and all.

Corydon

Should you give me a score,’Twould not lessen your store,Then bid me chearfully Kiss,And take my fill of your Bliss.

Mopsa

I’ll not trust you so far, I know you too well;Should I give you an Inch, you’ld soon take an Ell.Then Lordlike you Rule,And laugh at the Fool,No, no, no…

Corydon

So small a Request,You must not, you cannot, you shall not deny,Nor will I admit of another Reply.

Mopsa

Nay, what do you mean?O fie, fie, fie!

§ Dance for the Haymakers

A Nymph

¶ When I have often heard young Maids complaining,That when Men promise most they most deceive,Then I thought none of them worthy my gaining;And what they Swore, I would never believe.But when so humbly one made his Addresses,With Looks so soft, and with Language so kind,I thought it Sin to refuse his Caresses;Nature o’ercame, and I soon chang’d my Mind.

Should he employ all his wit in deceiving,Stretch his Invention, and artfully feign;I find such Charms, such true Joy in believing;I’ll have the Pleasure, let him have the Pain.If he proves Perjur’d, I shall not be Cheated,He may deceive himself, but never me;’Tis what I look for, and shan’t be defeated,For I’ll be as false and inconstant as he.

Mopsa, Corydon and Chorus

• A Thousand Thousand ways we’ll findTo Entertain the Hours,No Two shall e’re be known so kind,No Life so Blest as ours.

ª Third Act Tune: Hornpipe

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Mystery

% I am come to lock all fast,Love without me cannot last.Love, like Counsels of the Wise,Must be hid from Vulgar Eyes.’Tis holy, and we must conceal it;They profane it, who reveal it.

Secresy

^ One charming NightGives more delightThan a hundred lucky Days.Night and I improve the tast[e],Make the pleasure longer last,A thousand, thousand sev’ral ways.

Sleep and Chorus

& Hush, no more, be silent, all,Sweet Repose has clos’d her Eyes,Soft as feather’d Snow does fall!Softly, softly, steal from hence.No noise disturb her sleeping sense.

* A Dance for the Followers of Night

( Second Act Tune: Aire

ACT THREE

) Prelude

Song

If Love’s a Sweet Passion, why does it torment?If a Bitter, oh! tell me whence comes my content?Since I suffer with pleasure, why should I complain,Or grieve at my Fate, when I know ’tis in vain?

Yet so pleasing the Pain is, so soft is the Dart,That at once it both wounds me and tickles my Heart.

Chorus

I press her Hand gently, look Languishing down,

And by Passionate Silence I make my Love known.

But oh! how I’m Blest when so kind she

does prove,

By some willing mistake to discover her Love.

When in striving to hide, she reveals all

her Flame,And our Eyes tell each other, what neither dares Name.

¡ Symphony while the Swans come forward

™ Dance for the Faierys

# Dance for the Green Men

Song

¢ Ye gentle Spirits of the Air, appear;

Prepare, and joyn your tender Voices here.

Catch and repeat the Trembling Sounds anew:

Soft as her Sighs and sweet as Pearly dew,

Run new Divisions, and such Measures keep,As when you lull the God of Love asleep.

Corydon

∞ Now the Maids and the Men are making of Hay,

We’ve left the dull Fools, and are stolen away.

Then Mopsa no more

Be Coy as before,

But let’s merrily Play,And Kiss the sweet time away.

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Chorus

£ Hail! Great Parent...

$ Fourth Act Tune: Aire

ACT FIVE

% Prelude

Juno

^ Thrice happy Lovers, may you beFor ever, ever, ever free,From the tormenting Devill, Jealousie;From all the anxious Cares and Strife,That attends a married Life.Be to one another true,Kind to her as she’s to you.And since the Errors of this Night are past,May he be ever Constant, she be ever Chast[e].

The Plaint

& O let me weep, for ever weep!My Eyes no more shall welcome Sleep.I’le hide me from the sight of Day,And sigh, sigh, sigh my Soul away.He’s gone, he’s gone, his loss deplore;And I shall never see him more.

* Entry Dance

( Symphony

Chinese Man

) Thus the gloomy WorldAt first began to shine,And from the Power Divine

A Glory round about it hurl’d;Which made it bright,And gave it Birth in light.Then were all Minds as pure,As those Ethereal Streams;In Innocence secure,Not Subject to Extreames.There was no Room then for empty Fame,No cause for Pride, Ambition wanted aim.

Chinese Woman

¡ Thus Happy and Free,Thus treated are weWith nature’s chiefest Delights.We never cloy,But renew our Joy,And one Bliss another Invites.

Chorus

Thus wildly we live,Thus freely we give,What Heaven as freely bestows.We were not madeFor Labour and Trade,Which Fools on each other impose.

Chinese Man

™ Yes, Daphne, in your Looks I findThe Charms by which my Heart’s betray’d;Then let not your Disdain unbindThe Pris’ner that your Eyes have made.She that in Love makes least DefenceWounds ever with the surest Dart;Beauty may captivate the Sence,But Kindness only gains the Heart.

20

CD2

ACT FOUR

1 Symphony – Canzona

2 Largo

3 Allegro

4 Adagio – Allegro

One of the Attendants and Chorus

5 Now the Night is chas’d away,All salute the rising Sun.’Tis that happy, happy Day,The Birth-Day of King Oberon.

Two Others

6 Let the Fifes, and the Clarions, and shrill Trumpets sound,And the Arch of high Heav’n the clangor resound.

7 Entry of Phoebus

Phoebus

When a Cruel long Winter has frozen the Earth,And Nature Imprison’d seeks in vain to be free;I dart forth my Beams to give all things a Birth,Making Spring for the Plants, ev’ry Flower, and each Tree.’Tis I who give Life, Warmth, and Vigour to all,Ev’n Love who rules all things in Earth, Air, and Sea,Would languish, and fade, and to nothing would fall,The World to its Chaos would return, but for me.

Chorus

8 Hail! Great Parent of us all.

Light and Comfort of the Earth,

Before thy Shrine the Seasons fall,

Thou who giv’st all Nature Birth.

Spring

9 Thus the ever Grateful Spring,

Does her yearly Tribute bring;

All your Sweets before him lay,

Then round his Altar Sing and Play.

Summer

0 Here’s the Summer, Sprightly, Gay,

Smiling, Wanton, Fresh and Fair;

Adorn’d with all the Flowers of May,

Whose various Sweets perfume the Air.

Autumn

! See my many Colour’d Fields,

And loaded Trees my Will obey;

All the Fruit that Autumn yields,

I offer to the God of Day.

Winter

@ Next, Winter comes Slowly, Pale, Meager,

and Old,

First trembling with Age, and then quiv’ring

with Cold;

Benumb’d with hard Frosts and with Snow

cover’d o’er,

Prays the SUN to Restore him, and Sings

as before.

23

Cantillation

Antony Walker Music DirectorAlison Johnston Manager

Soprano

Miriam AllanBelinda MontgomeryAlison MorganJosie RyanJane Sheldon

Alto

Timothy ChungJenny Duck-ChongAnne FarrellNatalie Shea

Tenor

Philip ChuBenjamin LoomesBrett WeymarkRaff Wilson

Bass

Daniel BeerCorin BoneCraig EveringhamDavid GrecoSimon Lobelson

Orchestra of the Antipodes

First Violin

Anna McDonaldSimon Brown, Australia, 2003,

after Guarnerius

Matthew BruceAnonymous, Germany,

18th century, after Stradivarius

Dominic GlynnGraham Caldersmith, Canberra,

Australia, 1988

Second Violin

Myee ClohessyMittenwald, Germany, c.1790

Elizabeth PogsonAnonymous, after Sebastian Klotz

Brendan JoyceB. J. Boussu, Brussels, 1759

Viola

Nicole ForsythTenor-size viola by Ian Clarke,

Biddeston, Australia, 1998, after

Giovanni Paolo Maggini, ‘Dumas’, c.1680

Valmai CogginsAdele Beardsmore & Alan Coggins,

Blackheath, Australia, 1995, after

Stradivarius ‘Gibson’, 1734

Stephen FreemanMatthew Bolliger, Newport,

Australia, 1992

Cello

Daniel YeadonMichael Watson, England, 1991,

after Guarnerius

Jamie HeyFive-string cello by Warren Nolan-

Fordham, Melbourne, Australia, 1986,

after Peregrino Zanetto, Brescia,

Italy, c.1581

Rosemary QuinnAnonymous, Germany, early

19th century

Viola da gamba

Daniel YeadonPetr Vavrous, Prague, Czech Republic,

2002, after Bertrand c.1720

Bass

Kirsty McCahonGiuseppe Abbati, Modena, Italy, c.1750

Oboe

Kirsten BarryToshi Hasegawa, c.1995, after Jacob

Denner, Nurenberg, Germany,

c.1710, boxwood

Owen WatkinsOlivier Cottet, 1988, after Christian

Schlegel-Basel, early 18th century

Recorder

Owen WatkinsAlto recorder by Friedrich von Huene,

1985, after Stanesby Jr

Soprano recorder by Paul Whinray,

Auckland, New Zealand, 1995, after

Thomas Stanesby Sr, London,

England, c.1700

22

# Monkeys’ Dance

First Woman

¢ Hark! how all Things in one Sound rejoyce,And the World seems to have one voice.

Second Woman

∞ Hark! the Echoing Air a Triumph Sings,And all around pleas’d Cupids clap their Wings.

Chorus

Hark! Hark!

Second Woman

§ Sure the dull God of Marriage does not hear;

Both Women

We’ll rouse him with a Charm. Hymen, appear!

Chorus

Hymen, appear!

Both Women and Chorus

Our Queen of Night commands thee not to stay.Appear!

Hymen

¶ See, see, I obey.My Torch has long been out, I hateOn loose dissembled Vows to wait,Where hardly Love out-lives the Wedding Night;False Flames, Love’s Meteors, yield my Torch no Light.

Both Women

Turn then thine Eyes upon those Glories here,And Catching Flames will on thy Torch appear.

Hymen

My Torch, indeed, will from such Brightness shine;Love ne’er had yet such Altars, so divine.

• Chacone

Trio and Chorus

ª They shall be as happy as they’re fair;Love shall fill all the Places of Care:And every time the Sun shall displayHis Rising Light,It shall be to them a new wedding day;And when he sets, a new nuptial Night.

2524

Executive Producers Robert Patterson, Lyle ChanRecording Producers Ralph Lane, Virginia ReadRecording Engineer and Editor Virginia ReadProject Coordinator Alison JohnstonEditorial and Production Manager Hilary ShrubbCover and Booklet Design Imagecorp Pty LtdCover image Kari Van Tine, Corbis/APL Back cover map image Johannes Van Keulen Oost Indien (detail), c.1689Painting of Henry Purcell Courtesy of the NationalPortrait Gallery, LondonPhotography Brett Leigh Dick (Antony Walker),Patrick Jones (Paul McMahon), Michael Chetham(Belinda Montgomery), Ed Hughes (all others)

ABC Classics thanks Natalie Shea.

Recorded 10-12 December 2003 in EugeneGoossens Hall, Australian Broadcasting Corporation’sUltimo Centre. This special studio recording of TheFairy Queen was made directly after PinchgutOpera’s December 2003 performances at CityRecital Hall, Angel Place.

� 2004 Australian Broadcasting Corporation.� 2004 Australian Broadcasting Corporation.Made in Australia. All rights of the owner of copyright reserved.Any copying, renting, lending, diffusion, public performance orbroadcast of this record without the authority of the copyright

For Pinchgut Opera’s production of

The Fairy Queen

Director Justin WayRepetiteur Neal Peres da Costa assisted byBenjamin BaylDesigners Kimm Kovac, Andrew HaysLighting Designer Bernie TanMovement Consultant Edith PodestaProduction Manager Danny LanderProduction Assistant Andrew JohnstonStage Manager Anna KoskyAssistant Stage Manager Minka StevensHarpsichord Technician Terry HarperChamber Organ Technician Manuel S. da Costa

For Pinchgut Opera

Artistic Directors Erin Helyard, Antony WalkerArtistic Administrator Alison JohnstonMarketing Manager Anna CerneazChair Elizabeth Nielsenwww.pinchgutopera.com.au

Kirsten BarryAlto recorder by Joanne Saunders,

Australia, 1999, after Jan Steenbergen

(1675-1728)

Soprano recorder by Joanne Saunders,

1986, after Jan Steenbergen

Bassoon

Simon RickardMathew Dart, London, England, 1995,

after J.C. Denner, c.1690

Trumpet

Leanne Sullivan Egger, bell after Johann Leonhard

Ehe II (1664-1724), Nuremberg

Helen GillEgger, bell after Johann Leonhard

Ehe II, Nuremberg

Harpsichord

Neal Peres da CostaFrench double-manual harpsichord by

Andrew Garlick, Somerset, England,

after Jean Goujon, 18th century, used

courtesy of Neal Peres da Costa

Chamber organ

Neal Peres da CostaBernhard Fleig, Switzerland, 1996, used

courtesy of Sydney Grammar School

Lutes/Theorbo/Guitar

Tommie AnderssonArchlute by Klaus Toft Jacobsen,

Chiavenna, Italy, 2001,

after Magno Tieffenbrucker, Venice,

Italy, c.1600

Theorbo by Peter Biffin, Armidale,

Australia, 1995, after various Italian

makers of the 17th century

Guitar by Peter Biffin, Armidale,

Australia, 1989, after Stradivarius,

Cremona, Italy, 1680

Deborah FoxBaroque guitar by Jaume Bosser,

Barcelona, Spain, 1999, after various

Italian makers of the 17th century

Theorbo by Michael Schreiner, Toronto,

Canada, 2000, after Kaiser, Italy, 1611

Timpani

David Clarence Lefima, Germany, 2001, replica of calf

skin Classical timpani, used courtesy

of Opera Australia

With special thanks to David Irving.

Scenes from Pinchgut Opera’s 2003 production of ...Scenes from Pinchgut Opera’s 2003 production of ...