Organization

Singer

Soprano

Yuriy Mynenko

Cupido

Anna Dennis

Venus

Baritone

Morgan Pearse

Pope Clement VII

Countertenor

Alexander Chance

Shepherd

Others

Intrada Vocal Ensemble

Zaryadye Hall

Venus and Adonis

Moscow

Russia

Grand Hall

Venus and Adonis Blow

Public

Approved

John Blow. "Venus and Adonis". Introduction to Act 2. Pratum Integrum Orchestra plays, harpsichord is played by Robert Hollingworth. The recording was made at the festival "December Evenings", 12/20/2019

J. Blow - Venus and Adonis - Act 2 (Act Tune)

One day, courtiers of King Charles II Stuart put on an elegant play about the wayward goddess Venus, the mischievous Cupid and the young Adonis. A playful pastoral with magical scenes, singing graces and Cupid's jokes suddenly ends in tragedy: Adonis dies on a hunt, and the struck Venus seems to freeze over his body. The author of the music, composer John Blow, wrote out the recitatives of the main characters in detail, refusing to use spoken dialogues. Such a "musical speech" in English performances has not been seen before, therefore "Venus and Adonis" is considered the first English opera that has survived to this day.

John Blow was an organist, composer of church music, mentor and friend of Henry Purcell. His miniature "Venus" became the model for the legendary "Dido", and this gave rise to Purcell's secular music in the second part of the concerto. It will be possible to appreciate the English theatrical style of the end of the 17th century: both composers know how to touch and speak with graceful ease in all foreign languages, weaving wonderful suites of French and English dances or writing out delicate and fragile solos in the Italian spirit. The similarity between the tragic endings of "Venus" and "Dido" is also striking. The lament of the Carthaginian queen and the final chorus are perhaps the most famous opera scene of the Baroque era; in concert, you can compare it to the "model" on which it was written: the lament of Venus with the choir of cupids that concludes Blow's opera.

The Pratum Integrum Orchestra, the Intrada vocal ensemble, Russian and British soloists will perform under the baton of Robert Hollingworth, the founder and director of the I Fagiolini Ensemble, a well-known specialist in Renaissance and Baroque vocal music. Venus - soprano Anna Dennis, who shone in the Zaryadye Hall as Beauty from Handel's oratorio "The Triumph of Time and Disappointment" (2019).

English

Venus and Adonis by Blow, From (2021/2022), Zaryadye Hall, Moscow, Russia

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