Synopses
Synopses:
Read brief synopses of the Purcell Cycle masques: The Fairy Queen, Dioclesian, Dido and Aeneas, Indian Queen, and King Arthur.
- Henry Purcell. Semi-opera in five acts. 1692.
- Anonymous text based on A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Shakespeare.
Acts 1 and 2: The first scene set to music occurs after Titania has left Oberon, following an argument over the ownership of a little Indian boy. Two of her fairies sing of the delights of the countryside (‘Come, come, come let us leave the town’). A drunken, stuttering poet enters, singing ‘Fill up the bowl then.’ The fairies mock the drunken poet and drive him away. Act 2 begins after Oberon has ordered Puck to anoint the eyes of Demetrius with the love-juice. Titania and her fairies merrily revel (‘Come all ye songsters of the sky’), and Night (‘See, even Night’), Mystery (‘I am come to lock all fast’), Secrecy (‘One charming night’) and Sleep (‘Hush, no more, be silent all’) lull them asleep and leave them to pleasant dreams.
Acts 3, 4, and 5: Act 3 commences after Titania has fallen in love with Bottom (now equipped with his ass's head), much to Oberon's gratification. A Nymph sings of the pleasures and torments of love (‘If love's a sweet passion’) and after several dances, Titania and Bottom are entertained by the foolish, loving banter of two haymakers, Corydon and Mopsa. Act 4 (which begins after Titania has been freed from her enchantment) commences with a brief divertissement to celebrate Oberon's birthday (‘Now the Night’ and ‘Let the fifes and the clarions’), but for the most part it is a masque of the god Phoebus (‘When the cruel winter’) and the Four Seasons (Spring: ‘Thus, the ever grateful spring,’ Summer: ‘Here's the Summer,’ Autumn: ‘See my many coloured fields,’ and Winter: ‘Now Winter comes slowly’). Act 5 (after Theseus has been told of the lovers' adventures in the wood) commences with the goddess Juno singing an epithalamium, ‘Thrice happy lovers,’ followed by a woman who sings the well–known ‘The Plaint’ (‘O let me weep’). A Chinese man and woman enter singing several songs describing Paradise (‘Thus, the gloomy world’ and ‘Yes, Daphne’). Two further women summon Hymen, the god of marriage, who is persuaded to bless the union of all the faithful lovers in the final masque.
- Henry Purcell. Semi-opera in five acts. 1690.
- Anonymous text based on The Prophetess by Philip Massinger and John Fletcher.
The story is about the struggle for power in ancient Rome. Delphia, a prophetess, foretells that Diocles, a foot soldier, will become emperor after he kills a ‘mighty boar.’ Diocles does not take the prophesy seriously and jokes that if this occurs he will marry Delphia's ill-favored niece Drusilla. It turns out that a soldier, Volutius Aper, nicknamed ‘the boar,’ has murdered the old emperor, and Diocles kills Aper in revenge. In reward for this action he is made co-emperor and renames himself Dioclesian. He ignores his promise to marry Drusilla and courts the Princess Aurelia instead. This angers Delphia, who brings a stop to the wedding ceremony by conjuring a storm and giant monster. She then causes the princess to fall in love with Diocles' rival Maximillian, and the Persians to defeat the Roman army. Diocles realises the error of his ways, routs the invaders, cedes his half of the throne to Maximillian, and marries Drusilla.
- Henry Purcell. Opera in three acts. Mid-1680s.
- Text by Nahum Tate, after his play Brutus of Alba and Virgil's Aeneid.
Dido, the widowed queen of Carthage, entertains the Trojan prince, Aeneas, shipwrecked on his way to Italy, where he will found a new Troy. Dido and Aeneas have fallen in love. Witches plot Dido’s destruction and the Sorceress conjures a storm to break out when the royal couple is hunting and the impersonation of Mercury by one of her coven. The storm duly breaks and the courtiers hasten back to town, while the false Mercury tells Aeneas he must leave Dido and sail for Italy. Aeneas and his sailors prepare to leave, to the delight of the witches. Aeneas parts from Dido, who kills herself once he has gone, her death lamented by mourning cupids.
- Henry Purcell. Semi-opera in five acts. 1695.
- Text by Sir Robert Howard and John Dryden.
The whole action takes place in the New World, in the years before the Spanish Conquest.
Some twenty years or so ago, Amexia, the Queen of Mexico, became pregnant. Her husband’s sister, Zempoalla, was devoured by ambition – she herself had a young son – and arranging for her love Traxalla to kill the King, then exiled the rightful Queen and proceeded to rule with force where her brother had ruled with love. However, in the course of time, others also cast envious eyes on the rich realm of Mexico, and just before the play opens, the Inca of Peru has invaded. His armies, led by the brilliant stranger Montezuma, have just won three pitched battles. Against the backdrop of the struggles for Mexico, Montezuma and Orazia pursue their love for each other. Ismeron and the Mexicans celebrate by offering a wedding masque to Montezuma and Orazia. Marriages that have gone wrong are healed by the power of love in a jolly romp by Henry’s brother Daniel (written after Henry’s death) that nevertheless can be seen to have interesting parallels to the Prologue.
- Henry Purcell. Semi-opera in five acts. 1691.
- Text by John Dryden.
Arthur, king of the Britons and Oswald, Saxon king of Kent, are rivals for the hand of Emmeline, the blind daughter of the Duke of Cornwall. Already ten bloody battles have been fought and the Saxons have been driven back. The decisive conflict is about to be launched when Emmeline and her attendant Matilda are captured by Oswald. Arthur, having resisted the temptations of two sirens, captures the spirit Grimbald and breaks the enchantments that are set against him. In the last act the opposing armies fight: Arthur meets Oswald in hand-to-hand conflict and, disarming him, offers him his freedom. Emmeline (whose sight has been restored) and Arthur are united. The magician Merlin banishes the winds and Britain’s island rises from the sea.
