Purcell: King Arthur - John Eliot Gardiner (2 CDS)

With its lavish music and elaborate staging, the semi-opera King Arthur is one of the master-pieces in Purcell's works. On a text by the poet John Dryden very freely inspired from Arthurian legend and specifically devised for him, Purcell created a work of great expressive intensity which includes many of his most beautiful and well-known arias The importance of Monteverdi to John Eliot Gardiner is signalled by the fact that, when he founded a choir in 1964, it was for a performance of Monteverdi Vespers. The Monteverdi Choir went on to celebrate it's 50th anniversary in 2014 with a performance of the same work. - Disc 1 -1 King Arthur, Z. 628: Overture2 King Arthur, Z. 628: Air3 King Arthur, Z. 628: Overture to Act 14 King Arthur, Z. 628, Act 1: "Woden, First to Thee... to Woden, Our Defender" (Contralto, Tenor, Bar5 King Arthur, Z. 628, Act 1: "The Lot Is Cast, and Tanfan Pleas'd" (Soprano)6 King Arthur, Z. 628, Act 1: "Brave Souls, to Be Renown'd in Story" (Chorus)7 King Arthur, Z