A masterpiece of the ‘semi-opera’. In 1692, on the strength of the immense success of Dido & Aeneas and King Arthur, Purcell went on to produce The Fairy Queen, based on Shakespeare’s A Midsummer-Night’s Dream.
The work is, in fact a ‘semi-opéra’, or ‘opera with dialogue’, in which only some of the crucial scenes are provided with music. But this version of A Midsummer-Night’s Dream by the ‘Orpheus Britannicus’ became almost as famous as the play that inspired it, with its love scenes, its supernatural scenes and its innate sense of musical humour investing it with an irresistible savour and enchantment.
Available on vinyl remastered from the original tapes.
