The Widdow and the Rake

A trip to Bedlam, the Queen's demise, dinner with the Duke of York and some rumours regarding William of Orange's woolens all feature in these dramatic 'scenes' from Restoration and Georgian London which combine the considerable acting and operatic skills of Paul Esswood and Philippa Hyde with virtuosic instrumental interludes.

Letters, diaries, poetry and bawdy gossip intermingle with passionate music, ranging from the saucy to the tragic, by Henry Purcell, Clarke, Eccles, Arne and Handel.

Henry Purcell

Duet 'Sound the Trumpet'

 

The King is Returned!

 

Anon

Song 'The 29th of May'

Duet 'Here's a Health unto His Majesty'

Henry Purcell

Song 'Britain, thou now art great'

 

On Festival Days

 

Henry Purcell

Song 'Fairest Isle'

 

A Journey to England in the Year 1663

 

Henry Purcell

Duet 'Sing ye Druids'

Two Grounds

 

The Wedding Night

 

Henry Purcell

Duet 'Oh! the Sweet Delights of Love'

Duet 'My Dearest, my Fairest'

Anon

Divisions on Greensleves for cello and continuo

 

Lady Catherine Dyer to her husband Sir William

 

Henry Purcell

Song 'An Evening Hymn'

 

Spiritous Debauchery

 

Jeremiah Clarke

A Dialogue between a Widdow and a Rake

Henry Purcell

Duet 'No, Resistance is but Vain'

 

 

INTERVAL

 

 

Henry Purcell

A dialogue between Corridon and Mopsa

 

Queen Mary has died of the smallpox

 

Henry Purcell

Elegy on the Death of Queen Mary, 1695

 

The East Wind

 

Henry Eccles

Cello sonata in G minor

 

Lunatics and Hangings  

Henry Purcell

A Mad Song 'Bess of Bedlam

Duet 'Lost is my Quiet'

 

A walk through Marylebone Gardens  

George Frideric Handel

Air and Variations on 'The Harmonious Blacksmith'

Thomas Arne

Song 'When Daisies Pied'

Song 'Gentle swain'

 

At the King's Theatre, Haymarket  

Handel

Scene from the opera 'Teseo'