The Fairy Queen

The Fairy Queen (1692-93) is an adaptation of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and one of Purcell’s finest stage works. It’s a British hybrid known as a semi-opera, in which a play was expanded with substantial musical scenes. The main characters were spoken by actors while the singers had inconsequential roles, so music played little part in the unfolding of the drama. Therefore, Purcell didn’t set any of Shakespeare’s lines and all his music is contained in five independent masques which, though not part of the plot, are related to it: the “Masque of Sleep” in Act II, for instance, prepares Titania for her dream. The highlight of Act I is the comic scene of the Drunken Poet who is taunted by fairies until he confesses to being “a scu- scu- scurvy poet”—a stammering effect probably parodying the poet Thomas D’Urfey. Purcell’s music was lost at his death in 1695 and not rediscovered until the early 20th century.