Purcell's The Indian Queen
From Teatro Real, Madrid, a new version of Purcell's final work, The Indian Queen, starring soprano Julia Bullock with MusicAeterna. Conducted by Teodor Currentzis.
Purcell's Indian Queen had a difficult birth, a managerial crisis led to the defection of most of the cast to a rival company during rehearsals and Purcell himself - who was only 36 - died before he'd finished the work. So what the audience saw on the first night contained less than an hour of music performed by young and inexperienced actors and singers with a final masque hastily supplied by Purcell's brother Daniel. Despite all this it still contains some of Purcell's most refined and dramatic music and is a piece the director of this production, Peter Sellars, has wanted to bring to the stage for many years. To make it work Sellars has completely rewritten the original play about the Mexican Queen Zempoalla and her struggle against the Peruvians and turned it into a story about Spain's conquest of South America, religion, and the relationship between the conqueror and the conquered. The opera now lasts over three hours and uses Purcell's original music while also weaving some of his religious anthems and secular songs into the action to create a dramatic new work full of contemporary resonances.
Sara Mohr-Pietsch introduces this performance recorded at the Teatro Real, Madrid, she talks to Purcell expert Andrew Pinnock about Purcell's original opera and Peter Sellars talks about his passion for Purcell's music and about his new version.
The Indian Queen.....Julia Bullock (Soprano)
Dona Isabel.....Nadine Koutcher (Soprano)
Ixbalanque.....Christophe Dumaux (Countertenor)
Mayan hero.....Vince Yi (Countertenor)
Don Pedrarias.....Markus Brutscher (Tenor)
Don Pedro de Alvarado.....Noah Stewart (Tenor)
Mayan Priest.....Luthando Qave (Baritone)
Leonor.....Maritxell Carrero (Narrator)
MusicAeterna
Theodor Currentzis (Conductor).
Last on
Structure
First Mayan Creation
The Origin of the Earth
First Air Dance of the Paddler Gods
Second Mayan Creation
Setting of the hearthstones
Second Air Dance of the hearthstones
Elevation of the World Tree
Third Mayan Creation
First Air First ballgame
Second Air Second ballgame
Fourth Mayan Creation
Overture
Adagio Dance of sacrifice in the Otherworld
Fifth Mayan Creation
Allegro Dance of Resurrection out of the Otherworld
Tune First entry of Spanish Soldiers
Prologue
“Wake, Teculihuatzin” Hunahpu
“Why should men quarrel” Teculihuatzin
“By ancient prophecies” Hunahpu
“If these be they” Teculihuatzin, Hunahpu
“Their looks are such” Hunahpu
“If so your goodness” Teculihuatzin, Hunahpu
Tune Return of Spanish Soldiers
ACT I
Scene 1
Doña Isabel in the rainforest
“O solitude” Doña Isabel
[Text: Katherine Philips]*
Scene 2
Conversion of the Mayans
“I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live” Chorus
[Text: Psalms 104:33-35]*
Scene 3
The wedding of Don Pedro de Alvarado and Doña Luisa,
“The Indian Queen”
“Blow up the trumpet” Chorus
[Text: Joel 2:15-17]*
Scene 4
The wedding night “He was my God”
“Sweeter than roses” HunahpuACT II
Scene 1
The Mayan Gods return: Gods enter the dreams
of the sleeping couple
Symphony
Entrada (The Gods emerge from the Otherworld)
Canzona (The invasion of human dreams)
Adagio (Divine mirror of the lovers)
Allegro (Dance of the Solar Fire Deities)
Scene 2
The Gods speak to Teculihuatzin in a dream:
The masque of Envy and Fame
“I come to sing” Don Pedrarias Dávila, Chorus (Danza de la conquista)
“What flatt’ring noise is this” Mayan Shaman, Hunahpu, Xbalanque
“Scorn’d Envy” Xbalanque
“I fly from the place” Mayan Shaman
“Begone, curst fiends of Hell” Xbalanque
“We come to sing” Chorus (Danza de la conquista)
Scene 3
“I have been chosen for something transcendental”
Scene 4
Doña Isabel meets Teculihuatzin in a dream
and releases the evil spirits
“See, even night herself is here” Soprano
Scene 5
“I dreamed I had convinced him to give up war”
“Music for a while” Xbalanque
“I love and I must” Doña Luisa
Scene 6
Troop maneuvers
Air Dance of young warriors
Scene 7
The Apotheosis of chief Tecum, the massacre,
and the river of blood
“Hear my prayer, O Lord” Chorus
[Text: Psalms 102:1]*PART TWO
Act III
Scene 1
Aftermath of a massacre
“Remember not, Lord, our offences” Chorus
Scene 2
“With sick and famished eyes”
“With sick and famish’d eyes” Don Alvarado
[Text: George Herbert]*
“Not all my torments can your pity move” Doña Luisa
Scene 3
Shaman divination ceremony: “Masque of dreams”
“Their necessary aid you use” Hunahpu, Mayan Shaman
“The air with music gently wound” Xbalanque, Chorus
“Ye twice ten hundred deities” Mayan Shaman
Symphony
“Seek not to know” Xbalanque
Overture, Canzona
Scene 4
Don Alvarado terrorizes villages with his daughter
on his shoulders
Scene 5
The Conquistadors Don Pedro de Alvarado and
Don Pedrarias Dávila have a drink in a bar in Chiapas
“Ah! how happy” Pedro de Alvarado, Don Pedrarias Dávila
Scene 6
The Captain General speaks to his wife about suicide
“If Grief Has any pow’r to kill” Don Pedrarias Dávila
Scene 7
Doña Luisa and Doña Isabel meet the spirits
deep in the rainforest
“Oh! Lead me to some peaceful gloom” Hunahpu
“We the spirits of the air” Hunahpu, Xbalanque, Chorus
Scene 8
Doña Luisa falls ill as the Gods begin to draw
her away from this world
“I attempt from love’s sickness” Doña Luisa
Tune Dance of the Divine Mirror of Sleep and Death
Act IV
Scene 1
Leonor takes her Mother to her last mass where
they meet Doña Isabel
“Oh Lord rebuke me not” Doña Isabel, Doña Luisa, Chorus
[Text: Psalms 6:1-7]*
Scene 2
“Very soon I shall travel the Road of the Star”
“They tell us” Doña Luisa, Coro
Act V
Secret ritual in the rainforest at midnight
“While thus we bow” Chorus
“You who at the altar stand” Mayan Shaman, Chorus
“All dismal sounds” Chorus
* Songs and hymns of Henry Purcell, added by Peter Sellars, as well as performing signs, which correspond to the conception of this new show.
Broadcast
- Mon 13 Oct 201419:00BBC Radio 3
