The Classical Music Book

(Tuis.) #1

76 BAROQUE OPERA IN ENGLAND


A musical revival


The creative foundations for
England’s music and drama were
in a poor state when Charles II
came to the throne in 1660. The
Puritans had closed London’s
theatres from around 1642 and,
abhorring music in places of
worship, had even disbanded
cathedral choirs. Charles’s
interest in the arts and his
subsequent support for them
was part of a wider policy of
encouraging entertainment.
This influenced music in
several ways. Charles created a
royal string orchestra modeled on
the Vingt-quatre violons du roy

(“The king’s 24 violins”) at
the court of Louis XIV. It played
for church services and court
occasions, performing birthday
odes by Purcell and others. The
post of “Master of the King’s
Musick” was reinstated with
the reappointment of Nicholas
Lanier. Foundations such as the
Chapel Royal, which trained
professional musicians, were
also renewed. New theatres
were opened and thrived,
producing what is now called
Restoration drama—often
bawdy comedies—for which
songs and incidental music
were required, frequently
supplied by Purcell himself.

As a child, Purcell served as a
chorister of the Chapel Royal at
Hampton Court, England, a training
ground for young musicians.

acquired a taste for French and
Italian music. Such preferences
influenced aspiring musicians
eager for royal patronage.
French influences are noticeable
from the start of Dido and Aeneas.
Act One starts with a typical
French overture, its slow, stately
introduction based on intense
dotted rhythms (which divide
the beat between a long note and
a short one). The second part of
the overture is fast, using imitative

counterpoint, as well as a structural
device by which sections are
repeatedly built up from a short
aria, followed by a chorus, and
then a dance. The opera included
several dances, a feature common
for French and English operas of the
time. Such dances would no doubt
have pleased the dancing master,
Priest, when the opera was staged
at his school.
Equally noticeable is the impact
of Italian opera—and specifically of
Didone, another opera about Dido
and Aeneas by Francesco Cavalli.
Both operas employ a ground bass
or passacaglia, in which the bass
line is repeated throughout with
changing melodies and harmonies
above it. Purcell uses this to great
dramatic effect for two of Dido’s
arias, including her lament, which
comes close to the end of the score
and provides a natural climax to
the whole drama.

Dramatic effects
As it has survived, Dido and
Aeneas consists of three short
acts telling the story of the arrival
in ancient Carthage of Aeneas,

the classical hero of Virgil’s epic
poem, the Aeneid. Having escaped
from the burning city of Troy at the
end of the Trojan War, he had sailed
with his followers to North Africa.
There he woos the Carthaginian
queen Dido—a wary widow who
finally submits to his advances.
Wicked witches plot against her,
however, sending an imp in the
likeness of Mercury to call Aeneas
away to his glorious destiny as the
founder of Rome. In despair at his
departure, Dido commits suicide.
Purcell masterfully employs
stirring motifs and deft word-
painting to express the fluctuating
moods that shape the action.
Throughout the opera’s varied
movements, Purcell’s text and
music work together in perfect
synergy to evoke the necessary
emotions of sadness, joy, or the
evil intent of the witches—music
and poetry “walking hand in hand
support each other,” an ideal Purcell
expressed in the dedication of his
semi-opera Dioclesian (1690).
His use of melismas—setting
one syllable on several notes—is
striking, enhancing the effect of

As poetry is the harmony
of words, so music is
that of notes; and as
poetry is a rise above
prose ... so is music the
exaltation of poetry.
Henry Purcell

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