One of Handel's finest arias, As steals the morn upon the night, performed on original instruments by the Early Music ensemble Voices of Music. Presented for the first time in 4K, ultra high definition video--from our award winning concert "As steals the Morn," March, 2019. This concert placed first in the SFCV "Best of the Bay" awards, 2018-2019. Amanda Forsythe and Thomas Cooley, soloists. Marc Schachman and Anna Marsh, baroque oboe & bassoon.
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In memoriam Edward W. Tayler (1931-2018)
As steals the morn upon the night,
And melts the shades away:
So Truth does Fancy’s charm dissolve,
And rising Reason puts to flight
The fumes that did the mind involve,
Restoring intellectual day.
—William Shakespeare, John Milton & Charles Jennens
“As steals the morn” shows Handel at his very best as a composer: he employs full, rich counterpoint throughout the aria, and he provides extended melismas for the soprano and tenor voices as well as the oboe and bassoon. The text was originally drawn from Shakespeare’s Tempest:
(aside) “The charm dissolves apace,
And as the morning steals upon the night,
Melting the darkness, so their rising senses
Begin to chase the ignorant fumes that mantle
Their clearer reason... (Act 5, Scene 1)
The play as a whole was widely imitated in the baroque period, and Handel's librettist, Charles Jennens, combined Milton's "L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso" and added his own "Moderato." Milton and Jennens borrow some of the evocative images and vocabulary from Shakespeare, such as "dissolve," "fancy," "charm" "morn & night," and scholar Laurence Lerner notes Shakespeare's influence on Milton's poems ("The English Poems of John Milton"). However, "As steals the morn" is based on Shakespeare and sourced from Jennens' contribution to the libretto, "Moderato."
L’Allegro premiered in February of 1740. The original cast was soprano Elisabeth Duparc (‘La Francesina’) a boy treble, tenor John Beard, and basses Henry Reinhold and William Savage.
Text:
As steals the morn upon the night,
And melts the shades away:
So Truth does Fancy's charm dissolve,
And rising Reason puts to flight
The fumes that did the mind involve,
Restoring intellectual day.
#Handel #Milton #shakespeare
High Definition Audio: Boby Borisov
Final audio and video master: David Tayler
