Скачать или смотреть Fairest Isle

Minuet/Aria (Venus' part) is from Act 5 of Purcell's opera "King Arthur".. Music by Henry Purcell and libretto by John Dryden. Part of a semi-opera first performed at the Queen's Theatre, Dorset Garden, London, in late May or early June 1691.

Fairest isle, all isles excelling,
Seat of pleasure and of love
Venus here will choose her dwelling,
And forsake her Cyprian grove.
Cupid from his fav'rite nation
Care and envy will remove;
Jealousy, that poisons passion,
And despair, that dies for love.

Gentle murmurs, sweet complaining,
Sighs that blow the fire of love
Soft repulses, kind disdaining,
Shall be all the pains you prove.
Ev'ry swain shall pay his duty,
Grateful ev'ry nymph shall prove;
And as these excel in beauty,
Those shall be renown'd for love.

Singing alongside a recording of the divine countertenor Andreas Scholl.
Image/collage based on Andy Warhol's interpretation of Botticelli's "Birth of Venus" combined with a background image/view of Wentworth Woodhouse, South Yorkshire by landscape gardener Humphry Repton (1752-1818).