Following a long and politicized creative process that kept it in limbo for 6 years, Henry Purcell's semi-opera King Arthur, or, The British Worthy, set to a libretto by John Dryden, was premiered in 1691 and remained a popular theater piece throughout the next century. Curiously, this work was to be adapted many times, due to the lack of an autograph score or detailed information about early performances, so later productions have varied in the ordering of numbers and their instrumentation. Adding to the confusion is the ...
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Following a long and politicized creative process that kept it in limbo for 6 years, Henry Purcell's semi-opera King Arthur, or, The British Worthy, set to a libretto by John Dryden, was premiered in 1691 and remained a popular theater piece throughout the next century. Curiously, this work was to be adapted many times, due to the lack of an autograph score or detailed information about early performances, so later productions have varied in the ordering of numbers and their instrumentation. Adding to the confusion is the story itself, part drama, part royal pageant, which has little to do with the Arthurian legends of Camelot, but tells instead of battles between the Saxons and the Britons, and the intervention of mythological deities and other supernatural beings. Even so, despite the many versions and the ornate plot, Purcell's infectious music survives to keep King Arthur in the repertoire of the 21st century, and the Gabrieli Consort & Players have made it thrive for over two decades. For this...
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