Susan Hemington Jones, Mhairi Lawson, Julia Gooding  sopranos
Charles Humphries, David Clegg  counter-tenors
Rodrigo del Pozo, Charles Daniels  tenors
Peter Harvey, Neal Davies basses

Paul McCreesh

Gabrieli Players

As the ENO Fairy Queen showed, Purcell's theatre music can make sense
without the play to which it belongs, though in this performance of the
music for King Arthur, it might be a substantially different sense. Sung
and played in austere style, the succession of set pieces evoked a damp and
melancholy vision of Britain, cheered by hard work in the fields and
pastures and occasional bolshiness, and warmed by sex (after marriage),
probably under a pile of blankets.

This isn't just rainy Saturday pessimism: Purcell and Dryden keep the big
chill in the picture throughout. The first scene is the Saxon sacrifice and
the call to Woden's hall (that is, Valhalla), and the call to seize the
moment is repeated frequently, though there are frequent reminders that
there is usually a cost. The nymphs in the pastoral mention the risk of
pregnancy, Arthur has to resist the temptation offered by English
river-daughters -- Sabrinas maybe -- in order to keep on his military
mission and save his country.  Although there's no divine machinery,
there's something Ring-like about this re-invented national epic with a
sense of pleasure snatched from chaos, and at a price.

Where William Christie and Les Arts Florissants last year, and in their
recording, emphasise the sensuality of the music, Paul McCreesh tonight
brought out the darker aspects where appropriate, and allowed the singers
to get a lot out of Purcell's intense attention to the words. Mhairi Lawson
was a slightly bossy spirit and Cupid, making the music of these
supernatural beings properly mannered and arch. Charles Daniels sang
impeccably and beautifully, as usual, in very English style. The other
tenor, Rodrigo del Pozo, has a very attractive voice, though he wasn't
quite accurate all the time -- and he has a strong accent (he's from Chile)
which sometimes got in the way of the words. It was funny hearing him
leading a Saxon roister.

Although this was a concert performance, there was a certain amount of
action, to emphasise what was going on in the individual scenes. The Cold
Genius started asleep on a chair and was woken by Cupid tapping him on the
shoulder, several times, in a way that made me think of Somnus in Semele.
(I suspect that Dryden and I would agree about mornings.)  There was a hay
and funny hats for the harvest home.

I would certainly like to see this music done as a standalone theatre piece
like the Fairy Queen, but even more now I'd like to see a full production
of the play and music. Assuming the musical scenes have something, somehow,
to do with the rest of it, it must be worth doing. Something like Le
bourgeois gentilhomme/Ariadne, or what might have happened if Strauss and
Hofmannsthal had done the Niebelungenlied instead of Helen of Troy.