Gardiner Purcell Collection - The Indian Queen

Henry Purcell (Artist), John Eliot Gardiner (Artist), John Elwes (Artist), Gillian Fisher (Artist), Monteverdi Choir (Artist), English Baroque Soloists (Artist), Martin Hill (Artist), Nicholas Kraemer (Artist), Nona Liddell (Artist), Marilyn Sansom (Artist), Rosemary Hardy (Artist), Dinah Harris (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 2, 1995)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Elektra / Wea
• ASIN: B000005ED2
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #629,682 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. The Indian Queen: First Music - First Air

2. The Indian Queen: Second Air

3. The Indian Queen: Second Music - First Hornpipe

4. The Indian Queen: Second Hornpipe

5. The Indian Queen: Overture - Adagio

6. The Indian Queen: Allegro

7. The Indian Queen: Trumpet Tune

8. The Indian Queen: Prologue - Air : 'Wake Quivera,' (Boy) Tenor

9. The Indian Queen: Air : 'Why Should Men Quarrel,' (Girl) Soprano

10. The Indian Queen: Recit, Air & Duo : 'By Ancient Prophecies,' (Girl - Boy), Soprano, Tenor

11. The Indian Queen: Trumpet Tune (reprise)

12. The Indian Queen: Act II - Symphony : Canzona

13. The Indian Queen: Adagio

14. The Indian Queen: Allegro

15. The Indian Queen: Prelude, Air & Chorus : 'I Come To Sing Great Zempoalla' Story,' (Fame), Tenor

16. The Indian Queen: Air : 'What Flattering Noise Is This' (Envy & 2 Followers) Baryton-Basse, Contre-tenor, Tenor

17. The Indian Queen: Air : 'Scorn'd Envy, Here's Nothing' (Fame), Tenor

18. The Indian Queen: Air : 'I Fly From The Place' (Envy), Baryton-Basse

19. The Indian Queen: Air : 'Begone, Curst Friends Of Hell' (Fame), Tenor

20. The Indian Queen: Prelude, Air & Chorus : 'I Come To Sing' (Fame), Tenor

See all 33 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very nicely done, polished Purcell., October 29, 1999

By 

Esther Criscuola (Oberlin, Ohio, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gardiner Purcell Collection - The Indian Queen (Audio CD)

I'm a big fan of John Eliot Gardiner's Purcell interpretations, and I'm very glad to have this one in my collection. It's just gorgeous, very much in the spirit of Purcell. The only thing I could have wished for is including the spurious (?) epilogue, just for musicological interest, but it stands very nicely as it is.

4 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A vision that death will frustrate, August 5, 2002

By 

Jacques COULARDEAU "A soul doctor, so to say" (OLLIERGUES France) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gardiner Purcell Collection - The Indian Queen (Audio CD)

The final semi-opera by Purcell is certainly a work of great weight. First it gives us a vision of America that does not correspond at all to what it was in the English colonies at the time. We are going back to Aztecs and Incas before the conquest by Spain. These old civilizations are shown as being based and centered on love. Purcell uses the story (not the history) of King Montezuma to praise love and total dedication to the loved one, including death if necessary. At the very same time in New England colonies (Massachussetts particularly and its Salem witches) witches were burned by the dozen and in the southern colonies slaves were exploited to the most extreme limits of inhumanity. This vision of love as the guiding value of the world is extremely modern and goes beyond « The Fairy Queen » where it is in a way reduced to the necessity of faithful matrimony. And that is the second important element of this opera. The third one is musical. Purcell is a precursor in a way because the emphasis is set on the melody, the use of human voices to express feelings and emotions. For him, nearly everywhere in this opera singing is the center of the music. The music sings more than it plays. And this announces the eighteenth century and the precursors of the classical age, the transitory phase between Bach on one hand (for whom voices were instruments of their own) and Beethoven or Mozart. Voices are not plain musical instruments. They have their own dimension : they express emotions both with the music it uses and the words it makes sing, they make build a temple to human feelings and some social awareness. There is something primitive in this stand, in this music that grips you by the throat. It is poignant and carnal. It comes from our physical senses and not from out moral convictions. We have definitely overcome the Puritan period in England and we are entering the modern ages that will lead to development, progress, democracy, freedom. Purcell is in a way a prophet and his short life prevented him from giving the full value of his vision and art.