Fairest isle, all isles excelling, Henry Purcell Nancy Argenta

Nancy Argenta

by Henry Purcell (1658/9-1695) , "Fairest Isle", Z. 628 (1691), from King Arthur or The British Worthy , no. 38. [setting text verified]

Fairest isle, all isles excelling,
Seat of pleasure and of love
Venus here will choose her dwelling,
And forsake her Cyprian grove.
Cupid from his fav'rite nation
Care and envy will remove;
Jealousy, that poisons passion,
And despair, that dies for love.

Gentle murmurs, sweet complaining,
Sighs that blow the fire of love
Soft repulses, kind disdaining,
Shall be all the pains you prove.
Ev'ry swain shall pay his duty,
Grateful ev'ry nymph shall prove;
And as these excel in beauty,
Those shall be renown'd for love.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Fairest isle
• all isles excelling

[meandnotanyoneelse]

Apart from anything else her vowels are beautifully shaped. There's a video here of a Frenchman singing this, and unfortunately he does sound like he's singing in a foreign tongue. he even sings "zhealousy".

To my ear it sounds like sweetness predominates over mere power in this recording. I don't think that's always true of professional singers. I like it very much.

[karaokegirl1313]

Absolutely breath-taking.

[Rich061170]

Zo puur ,zo transparant, ongelofelijk mooi! Genieten!

[Teofane]

A ravishing voice singing one of English music's most beautiful melodies!

[Julia091957]

I found the piece sung by Andreas Scholl. Such a pleasure to listen to.

[Julia091957]

beautiful! Emma Kirkby like. Did Andreas Scholl record this piece of music yet?

[bredwardine]

absoLUTEly delightful

[13orthanc13]

emma kirkby you have serious competition here

[Iolamusica]

She used to be my teacher. So awesome!

[composerdoh]

holy gorgeous-ness Batman!

Seriously, that gave me the chills.