Description
Purcell, Daniel; Clarke, Jeremiah & Leveridge, Richard: The Island Princess (1699)
Ref
LC2
Categories
Collected Editions
,
Group C: English Opera and Masque
,
Music for London Entertainment
,
Operas, Odes & Oratorios
,
Vocal & Opera
By
Daniel Purcell
,
Jeremiah Clarke
,
Richard Leveridge
Facsimile: British Library, Add. MS 15318
Introduction by Curtis Price and Robert D. Hume
The Island Princess
was an immediate success in 1699 and remained immensely popular for three decades. The importance of
The Island Princess
lies both in its stage history and in the unusual completeness with which its quite excellent music is preserved. Many readers will recognise the second entr’acte (f. 21) as ‘Purcell’s Trumpet Tune in D’. This brilliant piece – here, in its earliest appearance, scored for strings alone and without the dotted rhythms acquired later – was long misattributed to Henry Purcell. Though a collaboration between composers, the music of
The Island Princess
is of high and uniform quality.
