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Comus
In Greek mythology, Comus (; grc, Κῶμος, ''Kōmos'') is the god of festivity, revels and nocturnal dalliances. He is a son and a cup-bearer of the god Dionysus. He was represented as a winged youth or a child-like satyr and represents anarchy and chaos. His mythology occurs in the later times of antiquity. During his festivals in Ancient Greece, men and women exchanged clothes. He was depicted as a young man on the point of unconsciousness from drink. He had a wreath of flowers on his head and carried a torch that was in the process of being dropped. Unlike the purely carnal Pan or purely intoxicated Dionysos, Comus was a god of excess. Comus in art A description of Comus as he appeared in painting is found in '' Imagines'' (Greek Εἰκόνες, translit. Eikones) by Philostratus the Elder, a Greek writer and sophist of the 3rd century AD. Comus appears at the start of the masque ''Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue'' by Ben Jonson and in ''Les fêtes de Paphos'' (''T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Comus (Milton)
''Comus'' (''A Masque Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634'') is a masque in honour of chastity, written by John Milton. It was first presented on Michaelmas, 1634, before John Egerton, 1st Earl of Bridgewater, at Ludlow Castle in celebration of the Earl's new post as Lord President of Wales. Known colloquially as ''Comus'', the masque's actual full title in its first publication is ''A Maske presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: on Michaelmasse night, before the Right Honorable, John Earle of Bridgewater, Viscount Brackly, Lord President of Wales, and one of His Majesties most honorable privie counsell''. It was first performed for the Earl of Bridgewater on 29 September 1634. The performance also featured his two sons as the Elder Brother and Second Brother, and his daughter, Alice, as the Lady. ''Comus'' was printed anonymously in 1637, in a quarto issued by bookseller Humphrey Robinson; Milton included the work in his ''Poems'' of 1645 and 1673. Milton's text was later used for a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Comus (Arne)
''Comus'' is a masque in three acts by English composer Thomas Arne. The work uses a libretto by John Dalton (1709-1763) that is based on John Milton's 1634 masque of the same name. The work was first performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London, on 4 March 1738.John A. Parkinson: "Comus (ii)", ''Grove Music Online'' ed. L. Macy (Accessed February 16, 2009)(subscription access)/ref> History ''Comus'' was Arne's first major success, and the masque enjoyed regular revivals throughout his lifetime. The work boasts some of his finest music with songs like "Now Phoebus sinketh in the West" and "Would you taste the noontide air" displaying a fresh lyrical style. The work was published in 1740 but without the recitatives and choruses. The original score containing the additional music is now lost, but a copy of that score, made around 1785, does exist with all of the original music and some additional pieces taken from Handel’s ''L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato ("The C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Circe
Circe (; grc, , ) is an Magician (paranormal), enchantress and a minor goddess in ancient Greek mythology and Ancient Greek religion, religion. She is either a daughter of the Titans, Titan Helios and the Oceanid nymph Perse (mythology), Perse or the goddess Hecate and Aeëtes. Circe was renowned for her vast knowledge of potions and herbs. Through the use of these and a magic wand or staff, she would Shapeshifting, transform her enemies, or those who offended her, into animals. The best known of her legends is told in Homer's ''Odyssey'' when Odysseus visits her island of Aeaea on the way back from the Trojan War and she changes most of his crew into swine. He manages to persuade her to return them to human shape, lives with her for a year and has sons by her, including Latinus and Telegonus (son of Odysseus), Telegonus. Her ability to change others into animals is further highlighted by the story of Picus, an Italian king whom she turns into a woodpecker for resisting her adv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Milton
John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet and intellectual. His 1667 epic poem '' Paradise Lost'', written in blank verse and including over ten chapters, was written in a time of immense religious flux and political upheaval. It addressed the fall of man, including the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and God's expulsion of them from the Garden of Eden. ''Paradise Lost'' is widely considered one of the greatest works of literature ever written, and it elevated Milton's widely-held reputation as one of history's greatest poets. He also served as a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under its Council of State and later under Oliver Cromwell. Writing in English, Latin, and Italian, Milton achieved global fame and recognition during his lifetime; his celebrated ''Areopagitica'' (1644), written in condemnation of pre-publication censorship, is among history's most influential and impassioned defences of freedom of spe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Masque
The masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment that flourished in 16th- and early 17th-century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio (a public version of the masque was the pageant). A masque involved music, dancing, singing and acting, within an elaborate stage design, in which the architectural framing and costumes might be designed by a renowned architect, to present a deferential allegory flattering to the patron. Professional actors and musicians were hired for the speaking and singing parts. Masquers who did not speak or sing were often courtiers: the English queen Anne of Denmark frequently danced with her ladies in masques between 1603 and 1611, and Henry VIII and Charles I of England performed in the masques at their courts. In the tradition of masque, Louis XIV of France danced in ballets at Versailles with music by Jean-Baptiste Lully. Development The masque tradition developed from the elaborate pageants and cou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pleasure Reconciled To Virtue
''Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue'' is a Jacobean era masque, written by Ben Jonson and designed by Inigo Jones. It was first performed on Twelfth Night, 6 January 1618, in the Banqueting House at Whitehall Palace. The work's failure on its initial performance, and its subsequent revision, marked a significant development in Jonson's evolving masque technique. Prince Charles The masque marked the début of the young Prince Charles, the future King Charles I, in the public life of the Stuart Court. Upon the death of his older brother Prince Henry in 1612, Charles had become the heir to the throne of his father, James I; but his youth and relatively poor health (he'd suffered from rickets as a child) kept Charles from assuming the kind of public prominence that Henry had earlier enjoyed. Dancing a role in ''Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue'' marked a sort of "coming out" for Charles, just as Henry's appearance in the Jonson/Jones masque ''Oberon, the Faery Prince'' (1611) had been sig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
King Arthur (opera)
''King Arthur, or The British Worthy'' (Z. 628), is a semi-opera in five acts with music by Henry Purcell and a libretto by John Dryden. It was first performed at the Queen's Theatre, Dorset Garden, London, in late May or early June 1691. The plot is based on the battles between King Arthur's Britons and the Saxons, rather than the legends of Camelot (although Merlin does make an appearance). It is a Restoration spectacular, including such supernatural characters as Cupid and Venus plus references to the Germanic gods of the Saxons, Woden, Thor, and Freya. The tale centres on Arthur's endeavours to recover his fiancée, the blind Cornish Princess Emmeline, who has been abducted by his arch-enemy, the Saxon King Oswald of Kent. ''King Arthur'' is a "dramatick opera" or semi-opera: the principal characters do not sing, except if they are supernatural, pastoral or, in the case of Comus and the popular ''Your hay it is mow'd'', drunk. Secondary characters sing to them, usually as d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dionysus
In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus (; grc, Διόνυσος ) is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, festivity, and theatre. The Romans called him Bacchus ( or ; grc, Βάκχος ) for a frenzy he is said to induce called ''bakkheia''. As Dionysus Eleutherios ("the liberator"), his wine, music, and ecstatic dance free his followers from self-conscious fear and care, and subvert the oppressive restraints of the powerful. His ''thyrsus'', a fennel-stem sceptre, sometimes wound with ivy and dripping with honey, is both a beneficent wand and a weapon used to destroy those who oppose his cult and the freedoms he represents. Those who partake of his mysteries are believed to become possessed and empowered by the god himself. His origins are uncertain, and his cults took many forms; some are described by ancient sources as Thracian, others as Greek. In Orphic religion, he wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Les Plaisirs De Versailles
''Les plaisirs de Versailles'' H.480 (English: ''The Pleasures of Versailles'') is a short opera (or ''divertissement'') by the French composer Marc-Antoine Charpentier. It was intended for performance at the new courtly entertainment known as ''les appartements du roi'' ("the king's receptions") devised by King Louis XIV and held in his own apartments at the palace of Versailles in 1682. At the time, Charpentier was composer for Louis, ''le Grand Dauphin'', the king's son. The librettist is unknown. Roles and synopsis Most of the characters represent the pleasures enjoyed at Versailles: ''La Musique'' (Music), ''La Conversation'' (Conversation), ''Le Jeu'' (Gambling), Comus and ''Un plaisir'' (A Pleasure). The cast of the first performance is unknown but Charpentier himself may have sung ''Le Jeu''. ''La Musique'' sings until she is interrupted by the babble of ''la Conversation''. Comus arrives and tries to reconcile the two by offering chocolate, wines and confectionery. ''Le J ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Les Fêtes De Paphos
''Les fêtes de Paphos'' (''The Festivals of Paphos'') is an ''opéra-ballet'' in three acts (or ''entrées'') by the French composer Jean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville. The work was described as a ''ballet héroïque'' on the title page of the printed score. Each act had a different libretto, librettist. ''Les fêtes de Paphos'' was first performed at the Académie royale de musique in Paris on 9 May 1758 and was a popular success. Mondonville recycled material from two of his previous operas for the first two acts, namely ''Erigone'' (1747) and ''Vénus et Adonis'' (1752), both originally composed for Madame de Pompadour's Théâtre des Petits Cabinets. The title of the work is explained in the preface to the printed score. Paphos was a city in Cyprus sacred to Venus (goddess), Venus, the goddess of love. "Reunited on the island of Paphos, Venus, Bacchus and Cupid decide to enliven their leisure in such a pleasant location by celebrating their first loves, and this gives rise ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Satyr
In Greek mythology, a satyr ( grc-gre, :wikt:σάτυρος, σάτυρος, sátyros, ), also known as a silenus or ''silenos'' ( grc-gre, :wikt:Σειληνός, σειληνός ), is a male List of nature deities, nature spirit with ears and a tail resembling those of a horse, as well as a permanent, exaggerated erection. Early artistic representations sometimes include horse-like legs, but, by the sixth century BC, they were more often represented with human legs. Comically hideous, they have mane-like hair, bestial faces, and snub noses and are always shown naked. Satyrs were characterized by their ribaldry and were known as lovers of wine, music, dancing, and women. They were companions of the god Dionysus and were believed to inhabit remote locales, such as woodlands, mountains, and pastures. They often attempted to seduce or rape nymphs and mortal women alike, usually with little success. They are sometimes shown masturbation, masturbating or engaging in bestiality. I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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