When he finally completed King Arthur in 1691, the semi-opera he wrought was unsurprisingly less politically topical than Albion and Albanius, which achieves greater permanence than the earlier work.
Permeated with Renaissance as well as seventeenth-century themes and imagery, the plot makes use of those elements Dryden felt most worthy of this emblematic tribute to England. The play centers around Golden Age mythology, with an approach similar to some Greek works that, despite depicting nostalgia for lost days, single their own culture out as superior to others. Added to this, Purcell’s musical interludes, as integrated living tableaux dispersed regularly throughout, also exalt a certain idea of England and its monarchy, one which draws upon Jacobean and Caroline masques for its aesthetics.
0 kommentar(er)
