Five years after Purcell's death — that is in March 1700 — 'Several Persons of Quality having, for the Encouragement of MUSICK advanced 200 Guineas, to be distributed in 4 Prizes…to such Masters as shall be adjudged to Compose the best….'. The persons of quality included Lord Halifax, who was Chancellor of the Exchequer and also a poet as well as a great patron of the arts. Among others, the playwright William Congreve was under Halifax's patronage.
Halifax's competition was set up to encourage the genre of all-sung English opera. Opera in England usually meant semi-operas and masques with spoken dialogues and dances, yet by then all-sung operas were well established in Italy and France.
The libretto for the competition, The Judgement of Paris by Congreve, was highly suitable partly because of the competition in the plot but also because of Congreve's characterisation of the competing protagonists (that is Juno, Pallas Athene and Venus) with specific sounds.
There were four contestants: John Eccles, Gottfried Finger, Daniel Purcell and John Weldon. Weldon was awarded the first prize, Eccles came second, Purcell third and Finger fourth. The result was surprising because Weldon was the youngest and little known. Strangely, only the settings of Eccles and Purcell were published.
Although full marks to Christian Curnyn and his Early Opera Company for championing Eccles' endearing opera, I would have preferred a sharper rhythmical focus where — for instance — upbeats, missing strong beats and similar devices are observed with more vigour. Congrave's beautiful text and Eccles' musical word painting did not seem to be fully realised as the nature (that is the direction) of some of the chromatic notes was not distinguished from the regular notes. However, Curnyn's tempi convinced and delighted. With one exception, the solo singers gave a fair reading of their music as well as the character of their parts. The one exception seemed to be getting through honourably, but without any characterisation either musically or textually. Curnyn and the EOC have recorded Eccles' opera — indeed, theirs was a world premiere recording — with the same cast except for the singer who, in the performance under discussion, just got through. I hasten to add that in Purcell's Masque this singer sounded incomparably better.
The Masque from Dioclesian received a spirited and thoroughly delightful performance. This might have had a lot to do with bass Andrew Foster-Williams, who brought humour and life to the performance and seemed to inspire his colleagues. (What a shame that there was no bass role in the Eccles opera!). Baritone Roderick Williams also excelled, as indeed, most of the other singers: in particular, soprano Lucy Crowe and Claire Booth and tenor John McMunn.
It is a shame that we had no stage actions or dances as specified in the scores. Of course, space is limited in St John’s but I have seen semi-staged and even staged performances there in the past. Opera or masque without stage business is a contradiction in terms (but it is not unusual in the concert hall). It is also a pity that the cast list was different from what appeared to be the reality: why were there no announcements?
The orchestra was excellent, and I was particularly impressed with the sensitive continuo playing of Reiko Ichise (on viola da gamba). The cellist continuo player was just a touch too dominating for my taste.
Before the Purcell performance, Lindsay Kemp (Artistic Director of the Lufthansa Baroque Festival) introduced David Vickers (Handel scholar) and Hugh Canning (music critic of the Sunday Times), who then presented the Stanley Sadie Handel Recording Prize to Christian Curnyn for his recording of Handel's Semele. Congratulations!
By Agnes Kory
Photo credit: Christian Curnyn by Drew Farrel
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