Purcell ‘dramatick operas’: 'King Arthur' and 'The Fairy Queen'.
King Arthur. Gabrieli Consort & Players. Directed by Paul McCreesh. Winged Lion SIGCD 589, 2019, 2 compact discs.
The Fairy Queen. Gabrieli Consort & Players. Directed by Paul McCreesh. Winged Lion SIGCD 615, 2020, 2 compact discs.
This multi-component output consists of studio recordings (on CD) of new versions of Purcell’s dramatick operas 'King Arthur' and 'The Fairy Queen' made 8–18 January 2019; supporting contextual information (on a USB drive) describes the three-year historical research, editing and performance practice project that shaped them.
- Submitting institution
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Guildhall School of Music & Drama
- Unit of assessment
- 33 - Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies
- Output identifier
- SUCCHRA
- Type
- I - Performance
- Venue(s)
- Festspielhaus, Baden-Baden and elsewhere (King Arthur), Cour des Hospices de Beaune and elsewhere (The Fairy Queen)
- Open access status
- -
- Month of first performance
- -
- Year of first performance
- 2019
- 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
- Suckling, a long-standing member of the Gabrieli Consort & Players, was commissioned by the Artistic Director to create new editions for the recordings and advise on historical performing practices. His research was designed to answer two principal questions –
How can 'King Arthur' and 'The Fairy Queen' be made to offer a convincing musical narrative in concert and on disc, despite the dislocation of Purcell’s music from its original theatrical context?
How can we arrive at a fuller understanding of the instrumentation and performance techniques of Purcell’s theatre band?
– through four interrelated research processes.
1. Comparative study of historical and modern dramaturgies.
Experiencing these works through audio-only recording tends to exacerbate tensions between modern conventions of performance and the unique dramaturgy of dramatick opera. A wide range of editorial interventions (in musical structure, detail, and performance) were made in the context of an explicit dialogue between the two environments.
2. Development of an appropriate editorial critical apparatus.
A bespoke kind of performing edition was needed to allow for rigorous collaborative development of that dialogue with a stylistically expert group of musicians intimately known to the editor.
3. Workshop development of appropriate rehearsal (and performance) techniques.
An iterative process that offered insight, through embodied enquiry, on the material, influencing the reading of historical variants.
4. Organological/ensemble investigations.
The duration of the project and collaborative musicianship of the group promised the possibility of reconstructing a defensible Restoration string band vernacular, distinct from current prevailing practices.
This multi-component output consists of two recordings, the product of a single series of studio sessions in January 2019. The contextual information summarises their research context and introduces and glosses excerpts that highlight the research processes (which also produced other artefacts – performing editions; other, live recordings; etc. – that are occasionally referenced for illustrative purposes).
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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