H. Purcell - The Fairy Queen "O Let Me Weep" Alfred Deller

"O let me weep" (The Fairy Queen, Z. 629)
Alfred Deller "Music for a while / O Solitude"

Composer: Henry Purcell

Librettist (Playwright): Thomas Betterton(?)

Libretto:

http://opera.stanford.edu/Purcell/Fai...

Source: William Shakespeare's comedy A Midsummer

Night's Dream
First performance: Dorset Garden, London, 1692

Voicing: Soprano solo (in this case, transposed to F#minor for alto voice)
Genre: Secular, Aria
Language: English
Instruments: Violin (or oboe, or possibly recorder)and continuo

Published: 1689

The main source for this song is Orpheus
Britannicus. The collection of songs by Henry Purcell entitled Orpheus Britannicus is in two volumes, published in 1698 and 1702 respectively. These include solo songs, duets and dialogues, and some songs for 3 voices. For more info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orpheus_...

The Fairy-Queen (Z.629) is a masque or semi-opera by Henry Purcell. It was first performed on May 2, 1692 at the Queen's Theatre, Dorset Garden in London by the United Company. The libretto is an anonymous adaptation of William Shakespeare's wedding comedy "A Midsummer Night's Dream".

Presumably the author or at least co-author of the libretto is Thomas Betterton, the manager of Dorset Garden Theatre with whom Purcell worked regularly. This assumption is based on an analysis of Betterton's stage directions. A collaboration between several playwrights is also feasible. Choreography for the various dances was provided by Josias Priest, who also worked on Dioclesian and King Arthur, and who was associated with Dido and Aeneas. Purcell did not set any of Shakespeare's text to music; instead he composed music for short masques in every act but the first. The play itself was also slightly modernized in keeping with seventeenth-century dramatic conventions, but in the main the spoken text is as Shakespeare wrote it. The masques are related to the play metaphorically, rather than literally. Many critics have stated erroneously that they bear no relationship to the play, but recent scholarship has shown that the opera, which ends with a masque featuring Hymen, the God of Marriage, was actually composed for the fifteenth wedding anniversary of William and Mary. A letter describing the original performance shows that the parts of Titania and Oberon were played by children of eight or nine.Presumably other fairies were also played by children, which changes our perspective of the staging.

The Plaint O, let me Weep! is part of the masque in Act V of Purcell's The Fairy Queen, where Juno appears and sings first the Epithalamium Thrice happy lovers, and then The Plaint. Peter Holman suggests that the quality and the range of the obbligato instrument indicate a recorder, rather than the violin: if this were so it would be the
only instance in Purcell's works of his writing for a single recorder. Clifford Bartlett in his edition of the Fairy Queen suggests violin or oboe as the appropriate instrument.

Some of the others who recorded this aria:

Sylvia McNair
Emma Kirkby
Jennifer Vyvyan
Catherine Bott
Kym Amps
Nancy Argenta


O let me weep, for ever weep,
My Eyes no more shall welcome Sleep;

I'll hide me from the sight of Day,
And sigh, and sigh my Soul away.

He's gone, he's gone, his loss deplore;
And I shall never see him more.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Henry
• Purcell
• Fairy
• Queen
• Let
• Me
• Weep
• Alfred
• Deller
• English
• Baroque

[yamiyugikun]

Beautiful! Thank you for sharing.

[FoxyJeana]

i love how the emotion is portrayed in the lower key, seems much more mournful

[Chesterton7]

thank you civil for posting this

[evanfan18]

Why does he shout when he comes to "weep"? Doesn't make sense, as many other things in his interpretation. Don't like it. =/

[AmatureComposer]

He sings it a fifth lower, and in baroque tuning (even lower).

Aren't there enough alto arias he could sing? This is a soprano aria. It loses much of its effect when lowered.

[pneydavo]

Beautiful voice

[Heartlessiceboy]

Anyway this was writen for a soprano,there are plenty of arias for male altos including duets in Purcell's repertoire.

Im a Countertenor and a gay guy also...i sing a lot of Purcell,I worship Alfred Deller as a pioneer of the countertenor voice but Im not sure if this was a right choice sing.

Is like when some countertenors sing Dido's lament or worst when some countertenors try to sing Carmen

[LutzDerLurch]

It wasn't, indeed. You are completely right at that Point. I do regard this small Discussion as absolutely peaceful and polite. (Which is, unfortunatle, rare on Youtube :( ) Just to be sure I'm not mistaken, allow me to state, that I do not judge any Person by his/her sexual Orientation. In my first Post, I was just humbly offering an Explanation for the Text sung differing from the written one, in Response to your, what I assumed to be, Amusement about this Detail. Have a brilliant Evening, L.

[nicosupersex]

even though this discussion is pointless, i'll make another comment...

this version wasn't recorded in Purcell's time, it might be that Mr deller wasn't homosexual.... i guess that was all....

peace and love

peace and love for everybody

[LutzDerLurch]

It is Indeed, nowadays. But in Purcells Time, however, Homosexuality was illegal and very rigidly punished.

[nicosupersex]

why??????

i don't se anything strange in a man mourning his male lover....perfectly normal for me.