Actéon
by Charpentier
(sung in French)

Directed by Simon Pike

CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS

Sundial Magazine review of 2009 production

Two contrasting but equally rare gems of the baroque era.
Actéon is a graphical account of the perils of encounters between gods and mortals
whereas The Secular Masque uses 'gods' as a metaphor for those in power much closer to home.

Actéon

For much of the seventeenth century in France Lully held a monopoly over opera composition. So, if other composers wished to set stories in the form of opera they needed to do in a way that disguised its operatic origins. One such piece is Acteon by Marc-Antoine Charpentier, which he described as a pastorale in six scenes.

Like standard French tragedie lyrique Actéon has a sad end and contains a mixture of singing, dancing and instrumental playing. Unlike standard tragedie lyrique which was normally in five acts, containing a highly complex plot, Actéon is a simple one-act opera. It tells the story of how Actéon, whilst out hunting with friends, espies the goddess Diana bathing nude, she immediately transforming him into a stag as punishment. The other hunters arrive just after their hounds have killed the stag (Acteon), this being announced by the goddess Juno.

Charpentier's music for Actéon contains a wide variety of orchestral colours and vocal styles, none more poignant than the instrumental that accompanies Actéon's transformation into a stag.

The Isleworth Baroque production is set in the time of the piece's composition and exemplifies the baroque forms in use at the time.

A Secular Masque

A Secular Masque is an allegory of royalty in England in the seventeenth century, first performed in 1746. William Boyce sets to music the poem of the same name by Dryden, written some forty years earlier. There is no published score for the piece - instead our Musical Director Helena Brown has produced our own performing version based on a copy of the score in Boyce's own hand.

‘Masque’ is an English term for what the French would have regarded as an ‘Opera’ – something that contained singing, dancing and probably a bit of acting and which (generally) was a happy piece in which the audience would have joined in with the choruses and the dances. Written originally to be performed in taverns across London, this glorious piece has been unjustly neglected, the only known performance in modern times being at St Johns Smith Square in 1971 with James Bowman in the role of Venus.

In A Secular Masque, gods are used to allegorically represent the major times in England in the seventeenth century. Thus, Diana (goddess of hunting) irepresents the time before the civil war when hunting and joviality were all the rage, Mars (god of war) represents the time of the civil war and Venus (goddess of love) represents the restoration. period of Charles II and James II.

The Isleworth Baroque production updates the action to the present day and involves golfing and shopping whilst ensuring that the allegory is still represented.

Cast list:

Please see below for some photos of the 09 production. If you want to see the full set, and possibly download your favourites, visit our site on Flickr. If you go to Flickr, to download a photo, click on it, then you should find above the photo a small looking glass icon and the label 'All Sizes' - if you click on this, it will give you the option to download a number of different sizes of photo.

back to top