Johann Christoph Pepusch, Venus and Adonis (masque in two acts), 1715, Ramée 1502, 2016
- Submitting institution
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Canterbury Christ Church University
- Unit of assessment
- 33 - Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies
- Output identifier
- U33.031
- Type
- I - Performance
- Venue(s)
- St Mary the Virgin, Bishopsbourne, Kent. Outhere Music
- Open access status
- Out of scope for open access requirements
- Month of first performance
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- Year of first performance
- 2016
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
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- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- A world-premiere recording for Ramée of Venus and Adonis, a two-act masque (essentially an opera seria in miniature) by the Berlin native, Johann Christoph Pepusch (1667–1752), performed by The Harmonious Society of Tickle-Fiddle Gentlemen of which Rawson is artistic director and double bassist. The work was preserved in a short score published by Walsh in London in 1716 (which contains most of the music of the 1715 production, but without recitatives) and a complete set of manuscript performing parts (preserved in the Royal College of Music, complete with recitatives), most of which were copied for the 1717 production and beyond. In these manuscript parts Rawson discovered important clues about the original 1715 performance that enabled its reconstruction, and also revealed the 1717 parts to be the earliest surviving set of performing parts for any piece of English dramatic music. Further analysis of revealed Pepusch not only used cello and harpsichord for the recitatives, but also the double bass—a practice previously only the subject of speculation. The project provided insights into the impact and influence of Venus and Adonis on Handel's later (and only English masque) Acis and Galatea. Not only did it demonstrate that Handel followed Venus and Adonis as a genre model, but he also adopted Pepusch’s distinctive approach of including arioso passages in the middle or end of recitatives to accommodate the general dislike of recitative by English audiences at the time. The recording was the winner of the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik (opera category, September 2016), and reviews of the work include The Observer, Gramophone, BBC Music Magazine, Fanfare and it was 'Editor's Choice' in Limelight (Australia), 'Critic's Choice' (Opera News, USA). The recording was partly supported through a Handel Institute Research Award.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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