THE MAKING OF A CLASSIC
Unforgettable, yet long forgotten. Within a few years of Purcell’s death, Dido and Aeneas was in typical “Restoration” fashion ruthlessly cannibalized as a masque within a performance of Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, and then laid aside. It was not the time or place for “classics.” The opera was rediscovered during the nineteenth century—a great age for classics!—and published for the first time in 1841. The first modern staged revival took place in 1895, the bicentennial of Purcell’s death; like the first documented performance, it was a student production. Yet George Bernard Shaw, not yet a famous dramatist but London’s leading music critic, traveled out of his way to cover it, and informed his readers that the two-hundred-year-old “first English opera” was “not a bit the worse for wear.”23 Since then, usually as part of a double bill, it has been a staple of the Anglo-American musical stage. The advent of recordings and, later, the vogue for “early music” or period performance-style, has further enhanced its popularity.
- Citation (MLA):
- Richard Taruskin. "Chapter 3 Courts Resplendent, Overthrown, Restored." The Oxford History of Western Music. Oxford University Press. New York, USA. n.d. Web. 12 Oct. 2024. <https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume2/actrade-9780195384826-div1-03013.xml>.
- Citation (APA):
- Taruskin, R. (n.d.). Chapter 3 Courts Resplendent, Overthrown, Restored. In Oxford University Press, Music In The Seventeenth And Eighteenth Centuries. New York, USA. Retrieved 12 Oct. 2024, from https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume2/actrade-9780195384826-div1-03013.xml
- Citation (Chicago):
- Richard Taruskin. "Chapter 3 Courts Resplendent, Overthrown, Restored." In Music In The Seventeenth And Eighteenth Centuries, Oxford University Press. (New York, USA, n.d.). Retrieved 12 Oct. 2024, from https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume2/actrade-9780195384826-div1-03013.xml
