If Love's a Sweet Passion...

Lyn Richards
Mar 10
3 min read

Enter Henry Purcell, the leading - indeed pretty much only - creator of Baroque opera (and then only one) in Britain.

Titania, Bottom and the Fairies by Henry Fuseli

painting by Henry Fuseli

His is such different music from the Italian Baroque, reflecting the times. His one opera seems totally different from any of the many works of Monteverdi and Cavalli. Purcell is often regarded as churchy and English-restrained. (Wouldn't you be after Cromwell?) But the orchestras speak the continuity with Italian Baroque, and the works that were dramatised are sensual - more simply, subtly so than the Italian buffo, but evocative of pleasure, in words and music. And this work is so British - accompanying music for Shakespeare. But not Shakespeare - listen here to the famous soprano piece "If Love's a sweet passion". Check out the lyrics at the end of this post - they're a series of metaphysical joke lines.

The famous bonking rabbits in the Glyndebourne production

Purcell's one opera - Dido and Aeneas - is our focus next week. But dally a while, and enjoy his music for Midsummer Night's Dream!

When Glyndebourne produced Purcell's Faerie Queen in 2012, Tim Ashley wrote a sweet piece about Purcell's work.

"It is important to remember that The Fairy Queen is the work of one of music's great sensualists. Centuries of very English prudery, together with an often staid approach to his work in performance, saddled Purcell until recently with a reputation for chastity that is far from appropriate. He was very much a Restoration man, and therefore a libertarian optimist, with none of the hang-ups that characterised later ages. "Pleasure" is a prominent word in the text. At one point a counter-tenor gracefully informs us that "one charming night gives more delight than a thousand lucky days." Later on a soprano insists that women's sexual freedom should be the same as men's. The work of a man who clearly loved life, The Fairy Queen celebrates it in all its wonder and fullness. "

Here's William Christie - with excerpts - talking about 'semi opera' and how it works for Purcell.

Not Opera?

No, it's not a story like Orphee, or a rollicking drama like Giasone - indeed it has nothing from Greek myth, which in itself is a departure from Baroque opera on the continent. Purcell has taken Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream and wound around it incidental music that has little to do with the plot - it's in the tradition of masques. It can be performed with the play (as did Glyndebourne, in the production we've viewed some years ago). Or it can be fitted to an entirely different plot - as it was in this production. Or this one.

Glyndebourne livestreamed their production during COVID - our blog is here.

Benjamin Britten regarded Purcell as the greatest English composer - and wrote his own version of Shakespeare's Dream. We viewed that at the end of our opera year in 2022.

And here's the Glyndebourne version of Titania with Bottom to "If Love's a Sweet Passion" .