The Judgment of Paris EMS 7th June

[ardcarp]

At the turn of the 18th century, a contest was announced in an attempt was made to kick-start the operatic scene in London. The brief was to set an all-sung English opera based on William Congreve's short libretto: The Judgement of Paris. An alluring 100 guineas was promised to the winner, and four contestants entered the competition: John Weldon, John Eccles, Daniel Purcell and Gottfried Finger.
Each entry was given an individual premiere before all four were staged on one night - a grand finale at Dorset Garden Theatre on 3 June 1701. The competition was judged by a public vote... what could possibly go wrong?

Hannah French explores the music and stories of the four entries.

My bold. Really looking forward to this...a fascinating period in English music history.

[ardcarp]

A programme very much worth hearing, if only to assess some of the music written in the gap between Henry Purcell and Handel's arrival in London. (Hannah twice referred to Handel as 'The Saxon' in unnecessarily derogatory tones, I thought.) I would have liked to know a bit more about the competition, e.g. what were the parameters set by Lord Halifax? Same singers? Same orchestration throughout...trumpets and Strings? Maybe these facts aren't known. Oh and we only heard one extract from Paris...but beautifully sung.

For me, the big upside of the programme was some truly superb trumpet playing by Crispian Steele Perkins plus an aria (by Weldon, the winner) sung by Emma Kirkby on top form. A downside was some continuo playing in the group Spiritato. At first I couldn't work out what the noise was, but it turned out to be Pluckers, Strummers on steroids plus an arpeggio-driven harpsichordist pretty clogging up some elegantly simple lines.

[kennystone]

Is there a videotape of it?

[Quarky]

Is there a videotape of it?

link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000jt5r

[Simon Biazeck]

Thank you - very much my thing with some very fine music. I found myself tugged towards admin. as the segment progressed but that was a relief, as I found presenter's style and context wearing. I continued to enjoy the music. That comment about Handel, albeit quoting Julian Perkins, regurgitated shortly afterwards did grate. Topical wit? :rolleyes:

S.