Henry Purcell composed only one true opera, his 1689 masterpiece Dido and Aeneas, but while that work proved a success the English public preferred more lavish spectacle in their musical theater. Thus, Purcell and his collaborators turned to a form dubbed "semi-opera" in which musical episodes and elaborate scenic design were interpolated into existing dramatic works.

Purcell's first venture in this form was 1690's Dioclesian, followed the next year by King Arthur. Both proved to be so successful that for the next season a spectacle to top all spectacles was planned, an adaptation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream — dubbed The Fairy Queen in its new incarnation because of the emphasis on the supernatural elements of the play at the expense of the human characters.

In its original form in 1692, the production consisted of four masques, one in each of Acts II through V of the play, along with various instrumental preludes. For the 1693 revival (the lavish production was so expensive that two seasons were required to recoup the immense costs) Purcell added a scene in Act I involving a drunken poet, as well as two arias that were inserted later in the play.

Many of these masques had little (if anything) to do with the plot or characters of the original play — in fact, so much of Shakespeare's text was removed to make room for musical numbers that the story lacked any dramatic coherence.

It was the custom of the day for music to be played while the audience was taking their seats, and these pieces were usually grouped into two sets; thus Purcell provided a "First Musick" and a "Second Musick" — we will hear one excerpt from each this afternoon. After the overture introducing Act I, we hear a love duet for soprano and baritone.

The Act II masque concerned a series of fairy songs and dances, followed by the spirits of Night, Mystery, Secrecy and Sleep inducing Titania, queen of the fairies, to slumber. A tenor aria ("Come all ye songsters") inviting the singers and dancers to the forest is followed by an instrumental prelude for the performances. A trio sings "May the God of Wit inspire," after which we hear an instrumental echo of the vocal number. Later we hear Night (in the form of a soprano) and then Sleep (baritone) quietly lull the Queen to slumber; Sleep's entreaty is taken up by the chorus. A dance episode concludes the act.

The Act IV masque involved Titania summoning Phoebus, the sun god, and the four seasons. After a symphony introducing the act, we hear Spring and Winter.

The most elaborate musical episode (and the one most unrelated to the original drama) comes in Act V. Set in a Chinese garden, a man and a woman — a sort of Asian Adam and Eve — extol the virtues of their Garden of Eden. At one point they are even interrupted by six dancing monkeys! Juno, queen of the gods, and Hymen, the god of marriage, are also on hand to bless the two young lovers.

During the instrumental prelude introducing Act V, Juno appears in a machine. Next we hear the touching aria "O let me weep!" — this was one of the two numbers inserted in the 1693 production; it has nothing at all to do with the onstage action. An Entry Dance follows the aria, as Chinese men and women make their way on stage. At this point a Chinese man sings "Thus the gloomy world." Later, Hymen appears. At the end of the opera he joins two Chinese women in singing "They shall be happy as they're fair," which is soon taken up by the chorus.

© 2002 Jeff Eldridge