The Early Opera Company is excited to return to the wonderful Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, this October, where they celebrate the old dynastic and artistic ties between the Netherlands and England with odes by Purcell to Queen Mary and songs by Constantijn Huygens.
Funeral music
Mary Stuart II and her husband (and cousin) William of Orange came to the English throne together after the Glorious Revolution of 1688. Henry Purcell wrote the odes Celebrate this Festival and the famous, Come, Ye Sons of Art, Away for Queen Mary’s birthday. When she died at the age of 32, Purcell wrote his haunting Funeral Music , part of which was played at his own funeral six months later.
Huygens writes to Mary
The Dutch connection takes shape in songs by poet, diplomat and composer Constantijn Huygens, of whom three letters to Mary are known. One of them contains a witty poem in which he predicts her greater fame than Queen ‘Elzabet’ (Elisabeth I): ‘Was Elzabet of great renowne, / God bless our Marie with a Crowne, / By two more and one letter / Sh’ll prove an Elzabetter.’
