England, My England - The Story of Henry Purcell : KULTUR VIDEO

England, My England
Written By John Osborne And Charles Wood

Charles: Simon Callow
Henry Purcell: Michael Ball
Mary: Rebecca Front
Nell: Lucy Speed
Pepys: John Shrapnel
Dryden: Robert Stephens
Bill: Bill Kenwright

Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists

Music performed by
Jennifer Smith, Lynn Dawson, Nancy Argenta

Susan Graham, Michael Chance, Paul Agnew
Stephen Varcoe, Peter Harvey, David Thomas

Tony Palmer directs this unique film drama about the great English composer Henry Purcell. Very little is known about his life, but the script, by the late John Osborne and Charles Wood, solves this problem by launching a group of actors in the 1960s on a voyage of discovery into late-17th century England, the extraordinary period in which Purcell lived. But it is Purcell s music which is the driving force of this dramatisation, with the stunning soundtrack conducted by John Eliot Gardiner. - $10.99

Purcell: Keyboard Suites & Grounds : Harmonia Mundi Fr.

- $13.24

Purcell: Complete Chamber Music : Brilliant Classics

- $34.99

Purcell: Dido and Aeneas / James, Lewis, Baker, Herincx : Decca

- $1.83

Purcell - Dido & Aeneas / Maria Ewing, Karl Daymond, Collegium Musicum 90 : KULTUR VIDEO

Dido: MARIA EWING
Aeneas: KARL DAYMOND
Belinda: REBECCA EVANS
Sorceress: SALLY BURGESS
Second Woman: PATRICIA ROZARIO
First Enchantress: MARY PLAZAS
Second Enchantress: PAMELA HELEN STEPHEN
Aeneas' Lieutenant: JAMIE MCDOUGALL
Mercury: FRANÇOIS TESTORY
Voice Of Mercury: JAMES BOWMAN
Conductor: RICHARD HICKOX
Director: PETER MANIURA

Purcell's much-loved tragic opera is an intense tale of heroism, passion, betrayal and ultimate tragedy, played out against a backdrop of fiery rituals, evil spells and pageantry. It was filmed entirely on location at Hampton Court House, England, where spectacular settings are created in the house and grounds.

Dido, Queen of Carthage, and Prince Aeneas, a fugitive lately arrived in her realm after the fall of Troy, fall in love; Dido's confidante Belinda urges her to yield to his suit, and they go off on a hunting party which, as a seventeenth-century audience would readily have understood, symbolises Aeneas's sexual capture of Dido. Meanwhile, skulking in the gloom of a cave, an evil Sorceress and her Enchantresses (an addition of Tate's not found in Virgil) plot to destroy Dido by conjuring up a false vision of Mercury to send Aeneas on his way; this is duly done when the hunting party is scattered by a sudden thunderstorm. Soon afterwards, as the Trojan mariners prepare to set sail, the Sorceress and Enchantresses arrive at the quayside to gloat; Dido upbraids Aeneas for his faithlessness and furiously dismisses him but after he has left she dies, broken-hearted, in Belinda's arms.

The dramatic power of the piece is complemented by its musical riches, which are shared among all the individual singers and the various colourful groups: urbane courtiers, gleefully malignant witches, salty mariners portrayed by the chorus.

Dido & Aeneas is not only one of the most perfect operas ever written but also an ideal opera for television. The extreme dramatic compression of its plot, which is one of the few grounds on which it is open to criticism, is even an advantage in film terms. Cinema and television audiences are extremely familiar with fast cutting, rapid plot development and the emotional twists and turns of much contemporary drama. A classical tragedy compressed into just under one hour is thus not as implausible as it might at first appear.

The location, Hampton Court House, is an empty mid-eighteenth century mansion with its own, slightly decayed, formal gardens and grounds. Ancient Carthage on the coast of North Africa, the setting for the story, was a trading city and a melting pot of nations. Niek Kortekaas, the designer, decided to create a rich yet primitive world, lit by fire (for which there are many references both literal and metaphorical in the text) in which Dido's court draws together elements of many cultures and traditions fusing them into a society dominated by ritual and pageantry

The challenge of working on film was a new one for most of the cast and it allowed a great subtlety in the vocal performances since the artists did not have to worry about projecting their performances into an auditorium. Magnetic performers like Maria Ewing were able to relish intimate effects which would not have registered in an opera house. Equally the tight focus of film work with its close-ups and reaction shots called for a style of acting quite different from that employed in a theatre and one which the cast embraced with great enthusiasm. I hope that this film captures both the personal intimacy and the public tragedy which lie at the heart of Purcell's great masterpiece. Peter Maniura - $16.66

Purcell - The Fairy Queen / Hunt, Pierard, Bickley, Crook, Padmore, Wilson-Johnson, Wistreich, Schütz Choir, LCP, Norrington : Virgin Veritas

Purcell worked immensely hard on his score for The Fairy Queen, but the original was lost. The version on which this performance is based arrived at London's Royal Academy of Music by devious routes a century and a half later. But in Roger Norrington's hands, it emerges in its pristine beauty: you could not wish for a better introduction to Purcell's greatest stage work. Only a "semi-opera," maybe, but one studded with exquisite songs and majestic choruses. The anonymous libretto is loosely based on Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, but its inexhaustible melodic invention is imbued with Shakespearean magic. Some songs have become concert favorites, notably "O let me weep," but the joy of this double CD is that you discover dozens more, and of comparable quality. Purcell's music breathes in perfect tandem with the words and Norrington creates out of this a riveting symbiosis. The singing is pure Baroque-instrumental clarity of tone, unsullied by any vibrato, and the playing is immaculate. Comedy and pathos are both here in spades; vast space is evoked through the pairing of flutes and the echoing of trumpets. And so are all the colors of nature: Purcell's music foreshadows Vivaldi. --Michael Church - $6.99

Purcell: Full Anthems & Organ Music : Naxos

- $4.92

Purcell: Odes for St. Cecilia's Day - Music for Queen Mary / Taverner Consort : EMI Classics

Andrew Parrott and his Taverner Consort, Choir, and Players have made some of the finest Purcell recordings to have appeared since the period-instrument revival began; unfortunately, most of those discs had been out of print for years. Happily, Virgin has reissued some of Parrott's best work on this reasonably priced two-for-one release. The performances aren't just exemplary, they're something of a landmark: in them Parrott pioneered the now-standard practice of using high tenors rather than falsettists on some of Purcell's low-lying "countertenor" parts. (One example is "Sound the trumpet," a duet for "high" and "low" countertenors from Purcell's ode Come, ye sons of art, sung by falsettist Timothy Wilson and high tenor John Mark Ainsley.) Excellent performances of the Funeral Sentences and Funeral Music for Queen Mary are here as well, but the centerpiece of this set is Hail, bright Cecilia!, the longest and most colorful of Purcell's odes in praise of the patron saint of music. There is some serious competition here--Paul McCreesh and Philippe Herreweghe have made superb recordings of this work--but Parrott edges them out. For example, alone among the ode's conductors on record, Parrott interpolates an organ solo amidst all of the text's praise of the organ (an instrument St. Cecilia was thought to have invented); he also provides appealing variety by using 12 different soloists (as Purcell did at the premiere). Those soloists are an impressive lot--they include Emma Kirkby, David Thomas, Paul Elliott and Charles Daniels (gently enchanting in the tenor duet "In vain the am'rous Flute"), and the Hilliard Ensemble's Rogers Covey-Crump, who gives an extraordinary rendition of the famous and fearsomely difficult air "'Tis Nature's Voice." --Matthew Westphal - $7.52

Essential Purcell : Hyperion UK

The "Essential" Purcell? Well, you could get a bunch of critics to argue about that for a few days, but in the meantime, here is a sampler of highlights from the King's Consort's three admirable Purcell series: the Complete Odes and Welcome Songs, Complete Anthems and Services, and Complete Secular Solo Songs. There are, of course, some of Purcell's most-performed pieces (which probably are "essential"): Dido's Lament from Dido and Aeneas, "Sound the trumpet" from Come, ye sons of Art, Rejoice in the Lord alway (the "Bell Anthem," named for the string figure at the opening that sounds like pealing bells), the gently patriotic "Fairest isle, all isles excelling" (sung by a miscast James Bowman), and a selection from the funeral music for Queen Mary. There are also some delightful surprises--particularly among the little-known secular songs and church music. The plaintive "O fair Cedaria" gets a lovely performance by Barbara Bonney (a singer not usually associated with Purcell); tenor Rogers Covey-Crump (possibly the ideal high tenor for Purcell) sings the enchanting "If music be the food of love"; the church anthems "Let mine eyes run down with tears" and "Remember not, O Lord, our offences" have some startling harmonies as daring as any Monteverdi ever wrote. If you're unfamiliar with Purcell, this reasonably priced disc is a good place to start exploring without a big initial investment. --Matthew Westphal - $8.11

Purcell: Songs & Airs / Argenta, North, Boothby, Nicholson, Toll : EMI Classics

- $6.50