My library button
Book cover of Masques and Dramatick Operas

Masques and Dramatick Operas

The Rape of Europa by Jupiter, The Loves of Mars and Venus, The Mad Lover, and The British Enchanters

by John Eccles · 2025

ISBN: 1987209184 9781987209181

Category: Music / Printed Music / Opera & Classical Scores

Page count: 234

Featuring music by John Eccles, Gottfried Finger, Bartholomew Isaack, and anonymous composers, the masques The Rape of Europa by Jupiter (1694) and The Loves of Mars and Venus (1696) and the dramatick operas The Mad Lover (1700), and The British Enchanters (1706) come from a particularly tumultuous period of English drama and are representative of the many and varied musical drama genres popular in London’s theaters at the turn of the eighteenth century, just before Italian opera rose in popularity there. The British Enchanters, based on the chivalric romance of Amadis de Gaule, was one of the last dramatick operas and thus one of the last representatives of what in its time was considered a truly British form of music drama. This edition presents all the surviving music for all four of these works, along with their corresponding playtexts and critical commentary.