Last Updated on October 2, 2024
The Fairy Queen – a new narration brings this concert performance to life.
First performed in 1692, Henry Purcell’s The Fairy Queen lay forgotten in the Royal Academy of Music’s library for over 200 years. Republished in 1903, it is the longest of Purcell’s dramatic works. It is purportedly an operatic adaption of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream but the two works have next to nothing in common. The Fairy Queen includes no Shakespeare but does include the addition of Gods, Spirits, Monkeys, the four seasons and Chinese dancers.
Needless to say, The Fairy Queen is not the most coherent of dramatic works. The music forms a series of dramatic masques which are barely held together by spoken text. The Sixteen performed it as part of Cadogan Hall’s Choral at Cadogan series.
A new, specially written, narration by Jeremy Sams was presented alongside Purcell’s original music. Sams’s text worked well as a contrast between the music and propelled the performance without getting bogged down. It included descriptions of the staging we might have had if it were staged. Antonia Christophers presented the text on stage she had excellent comedic timing and real presence. At one stage the narration wryly contrasted the “no expense spared” original staging with the current “no expense” concert performance.
On a slight aside note, the author (not completely known) of the Fairy Queen’s adaptation did write a complaint about the excessive expense. They carped about the cost of venturing into an opera, bemoaned the continent’s increased funding and stated that English opera would reach the highest quality with similar government encouragement. 330 years later and the arts discourse hasn’t changed.
The downside to the combination of witty narration and masques is that the plot is impossible to follow. Each piece of narration sets up the next musical scene thematically but never elucidates a continuing thread. If the intention was to lead attention to the music rather than the drama or story then it succeeded.
Musically, it is one of the richest and lushest of Purcell’s pieces. Even looking at the orchestration arrayed on stage was exciting for the Sixteen’s performance with baroque woodwinds and trumpets, theorbo, guitar, harp and a range of percussion accompanying the strings. Harry Christopher’s conducting produced a clear and well-balanced sound throughout. Many of the musicians had double roles, switching between instruments. Violins were all played without chin or shoulder rests and the cellos had no end pins.
The vocal parts were taken by a mixture of the Sixteen’s chorus members and two soloists. Matthew Brook was the drunken poet, Coridon and Hymen. Brook lept into each role with aplomb, whether it was sat on stage sipping away at empty bottles, or proudly strutting with a woman on each arm. Brook’s strong bass resounded through each role, including one masque which was performed in a northern accent.
Countertenor Robin Blaze was Mopsa, equally at home in the comedic roles including one slapstick duet where a hastily cross-dressed Blaze was subject to the lecherous intentions of Brook. Blaze sounded mellifluous throughout.
Other roles were taken by singers from the Sixteen with Katy Hill, Alexandra Kidgell and Charlotte Mobbs covering soprano sections. Mark Dobell and Oscar Golden Lee performing tenor roles and Ben Davies doing baritone bits. The Sixteen’s choral sections were, as usual, impeccable and delightful to listen to.
Cadogan Hall,
5 Sloane Terrace
Chelsea
London SW1X 9DQ
There are two more events in this year’s Choral at Cadogan series – Rachmaninov’s Vespers performed by the Tallis Scholars on Thursday 10th October at 7.30 pm and Christmas at Cadogan performed by The Sixteen on Monday 16th December and Tuesday 17th December, also at 7.30 pm
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