“Venus and Adonis”, a love tragedy à la Devoiselle

See my news
Follow Metropolitan

John Blow’s first English opera, Venus and Adonis celebrates a love tragedy with pastoral overtones. For its penultimate show of the cultural season La Devoiselle, on Saturday November 16, 2024 at 8:30 p.m., the City of Saint-Gély-du-Fesc entrusts his wand to Sylvain Sartre and to sixteen artists from the Young European Baroque Orchestra to discover young talents and this English opera with joyful, humorous and tragic notes.

Blow, master of Purcell

Composer and organist at the Chapel Royal, Westminster in London in the 17th century, John Blow, the master of Purcellis a pure product of the British musical tradition and the most eminent musician of his time. Dedicated to sacred genreshe composed his only opera for the entertainment of King Charles II in 1683 : Venus and Adonis. On a libretto by Anne Kingsmill Finch taken from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, he wrote the music fora “semi-opera” in three acts and a prologue in which the pastoral subject is transformed into a real tragedy. The musician tints the drama and the mythological characters with a typically baroque sensibility until the magnificent final chiaroscuro scene.

Synopsis: The goddess Venus loves the young hunter Adonis. They are enjoying the pleasure of their union when the sound of a hunting party rings out. Venus encourages her lover to join the hunters who pursue a dangerous boar because “absence sharpens desire”. Adonis, mortally wounded, will eventually die in the arms of the goddess.

> Practical: Venus and Adonis, Saturday November 16, 2024 at 8:30 p.m., in Saint-Gely-du-Fesc. Online reservation here, at the town hall at the Culture-Communication-Animation department during opening hours or on site the same day, one hour before the show, depending on places available.

Follow all the news from your favorite cities and media by subscribing to Mon Actu.