Blow: Venus and Adonis, Ode for St. Cecilia's Day

O'Dette, Paul;
Stubbs, Stephen;
Boston Early Music Festival Vocal and Chamber Ensembles

CPO 777 614-2

The First English Opera – from Boston
During recent years three cpo productions from Boston have received Grammy nominations in the category of the Best Opera Production. Again in cooperation with the Boston Early Music Festival, we are now releasing yet another baroque opera, this time a work by John Blow regarded as the first »real« English opera. The striking parallels between it and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas suggest that the two works were composed at about the same time and are interrelated in some way. While Dido and Aeneas stands firmly in the epic tradition, however, Venus and Adonis is a model example of the pastoral genre. The drama is accompanied by music throughout its length and offers three acts together with an enchanting pastoral prologue and a grippingly tragic ending. Following Charpentier’s Actéon (cpo 777 613-2) the Boston Early Music Festival Chamber Ensemble and outstanding young soloists now lend new life to Venus and Adonis in a top-quality performance under the leadership of the lutenists Paul O’Dette and Stephen Stubbs and with their participation.

CD

Muzyka klasyczna

CPO

29-04-2011

761203761425