Venus and Adonis | |
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Opera by John Blow | |
Librettist | Aphra Behn or Anne Kingsmill |
Based on | Venus and Adonis |
Venus and Adonis is an opera in three acts and a prologue by the English Baroque composer John Blow, composed no later than 1684 (when we know it was revived) and no earlier than 1681 (when its text was completed). It was written for the court of King Charles II at either London or Windsor Castle. It is considered by some to be either a semi-opera or a masque, but The New Grove names it as the earliest known English opera.
The author of the libretto was surmised to have been Aphra Behn due to the feminist nature of the text, and that she later worked with Blow on the play The Luckey Chance.[1] Alternatively, the librettist may have been Anne Kingsmill, subsequently married as Anne Finch, possibly in collaboration with the poet Anne Killigrew.[2][3] The story is based on the Classical myth of Venus and Adonis, which was also the basis for Shakespeare's poem Venus and Adonis, as well as Ovid's poem of the same name in his Metamorphoses.