FULL Venus and Adonis (Blow) Caen 2013 Scheen Mauillon Augustin

Information on the Performance

• Work Title: Venus and Adonis   
• Composer: Blow John  
• Libretto: Aphra Behn    Libretto Text, Libretto Index
• Venue & Opera Company: Theatre de Caen  
• Recorded: 2013
• Type: Staged Opera Live
• Singers: Céline Scheen, Marc Mauillon, Gregoire Augustin
• Conductor: Bertrand Cuiller  
• Orchestra: Les Musiciens du Paradis  
• Chorus: La Maîtrise de Caen  
• Choreographer: Francoise Denieau  
• Stage Director: Louise Moaty  
• Stage Designer: Adeline Caron  
• Costume Designer: Alain Blanchot  
• Lighting Designer: Christophe Naillet  

Information about the Recording

• Published by: Alpha  
• Date Published: 2014  
• Format: DVD
• Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
• Subtitles: nosubs  
• Video Recording from: AMAZON     #ad   Get this Recording
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE

Quote from Wikipedia
Venus and Adonis is an opera in three acts and a prologue by the English Baroque composer John Blow, composed in about 1683. It was written for the court of King Charles II at either London or Windsor Castle. It is considered by some to be either a semi-opera or a masque, but The New Grove names it as the earliest known English opera.

The author of the libretto was surmised to have been Aphra Behn due to the feminist nature of the text, and that she later worked with Blow on the play The Luckey Chance. However, according to the musicologist Bruce Wood, in his 2008 critical edition of the work for the Purcell Society, the librettist “has been identified by James Winn as Anne Kingsmill, subsequently married as Anne Finch”.[citation needed] The story is based on the Classical myth of Venus and Adonis, which was also the basis for Shakespeare’s poem Venus and Adonis, as well as Ovid’s poem of the same name in his Metamorphoses.

Synopsis
Prologue
After a French overture, Cupid addresses assorted shepherds and shepherdesses, accusing them of infidelity, and invites them to enjoy true pastoral pleasures.

Act 1
The couple are resting on a couch, and Venus, accompanied by obbligato recorder, is toying with Adonis’s sexual anticipation. Just before she gives in, hunting music is heard, and she encourages him to leave her and join the chase. The huntsmen intrude and sing of an enormous boar that is causing severe problems; thus goaded, Adonis leaves.

Act 2
Cupid is studying the art of love, learning from his mother how to strike love into human hearts. He in turn teaches this lesson to a group of little Cupids. Cupid advises his mother that the way to make Adonis love her more is to “use him very ill”. They then call the Graces, the givers of beauty and charm, to give honour to the goddess of love.

Act 3
Venus and Cupid are shown struck by grief. Adonis is brought in, dying from the wound given to him by the boar. He duets with Venus, and dies in her arms. As a lament she begins a funeral march, and the refrain is taken up by the pastoral characters (in reality, Venus’ courtiers). The opera ends with the G minor chorus “Mourn for thy servant”, a strong example of elegiac counterpoint.