| Venus and Adonis | |
|---|---|
| Opera by John Blow | |
&sq=Qlik&lang=&file=File:Cornelis_van_Haarlem_-_Venus_en_Adonis.jpg) Cornelis van Haarlem: Venus and Adonis (1614) | |
| Librettist | Aphra Behn or Anne Kingsmill |
| Based on | Venus and Adonis |
Venus and Adonis is an opera in three acts and a prologue by the English Baroque composer John Blow, composed no later than 1684 (when we know it was revived) and no earlier than 1681 (when its text was completed). It was written for the court of King Charles II at either London or Windsor Castle. It is considered by some to be either a semi-opera or a masque, but The New Grove names it as the earliest known English opera.
The author of the libretto was surmised to have been Aphra Behn due to the feminist nature of the text, and that she later worked with Blow on the play The Luckey Chance.[1] Alternatively, the librettist may have been Anne Kingsmill, subsequently married as Anne Finch, possibly in collaboration with the poet Anne Killigrew.[2][3] The story is based on the Classical myth of Venus and Adonis, which was also the basis for Shakespeare's poem Venus and Adonis, as well as Ovid's poem of the same name in his Metamorphoses.
- ^ Price, Curtis (1992). "Venus and Adonis (i)". Grove Music Online (8th ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.O905445. ISBN 978-1-56159-263-0.
- ^ Winkler, Amanda Eubanks (4 June 2020). Music, Dance, and Drama in Early Modern English Schools. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-108-49086-3. Archived from the original on 10 August 2024. Retrieved 14 June 2024.
- ^ Wright, Gillian (18 April 2013). Producing Women's Poetry, 1600-1730: Text and Paratext, Manuscript and Print. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-03792-2. Archived from the original on 10 August 2024. Retrieved 14 June 2024.