Notes for Promoters
The Weaver Ensemble: one actor, two dancers and 4 on-stage musicians.
Technical Requirements
Performing space: around 6 metres x 9 metres minimum. We are happy to have the audience on three sides of the space.
Floor: the dancers need a wooden or dance floor. They cannot perform on stone or marble.
Props: we bring our own
Lighting: we do not need any special lighting
The music
Act 1 The Loves of Mars & Venus
The action takes place on the stage of the Drury Lane Theatre, early in 1717.
1. Overture, Fate of Troy — Finger
2. March, Love’s Stratagem — Paisible
3. Trumpet Air 1, Falstaff — Paisible
4. Entrée Grave, Canarie 1 & 2, Bellerophon — Lully
5. Round O, The Fate of Troy — Finger
6. Chacone, Rinaldo & Armida — Eccles
7. Round-O, Courtship-a-la-Mode — Croft
8. 2nd Aire, Courtship-a-la-Mode
9. 3rd Act Tune, The Island Princess — Clarke
10. Jigg, Love’s at a Loss — Finger
11. Trumpet Air 2, Falstaff — Paisible
12. Air, She Would and She Would Not — Paisible
13. Bore, Minuet, Love’s Stratagem — Paisible
14. Gavotte, Roland — Lully
15. Passepied, Love’s Stratagem — Paisible
16. 2nd Musicke, The Island Princess — Clarke
17. Jigg, Fate of Troy — Finger
18. Aire, Love’s at a Loss — Finger
19. Jigg, Love’s at a Loss
20. Sarabande, She Would and She Would Not — Paisible
21. 2 Air, Mad Lover — Eccles
22. March, Falstaff — Paisible
23. Jigg, Mad Lover — Eccles
24. Aire, Mad Lover
25. ‘Pursue Thy Conquest Love’, Dido & Aeneas — Purcell
‘Venus running into Mars’s Arms’ set by John Eccles
Godfrey Finger c1660-1730, Jacques Paisible c1656-1721, Jean-Baptiste Lully 1632-1687, John Eccles 1668-1735, William Croft 1678-1727, Jeremiah Clarke c1674-1707,
Henry Purcell 1659-95
Act 2 The Loves of Pygmalion
The action takes place on the stage of the Drury Lane Theatre, some years later.
music by Rameau unless otherwise stated.
1. Overture, The Beggar’s Opera — Pepusch
2. The Glittering Sun, The Morning — Arne
3. Jig — anon
4. Aimable Vainquer, Hesione — Campra
5. Overture, Pigmalion — Rameau/Mulgan
6. March (Lilliburlero) — Purcell
7. Entrée de Divintés Infernales, Persée
8. Gavotte, Pigmalion — Rameau/Mulgan
9. Contredanse, Les Boreades
10. Entrée Espagnole, Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme — Lully
11. Lent, Pigmalion
12. Entrée d’Abaris, Les Boreades
13. Entrée Espagnole, Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme — Lully
14. Les Tendres Plaintes, Suite in D major for harpsichord
15. Tres Lent, Castor & Pollux
16. Youth’s the Season, The Beggars Opera
17. Sarabande, Pigmalion — Rameau/Mulgan
18. Loure, Zoroastre
19. Chaconne d’Arlequin, Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme — Lully
20. Finale, Platée
21. Fatal Amour, Pigmalion Rameau/Mulgan
22. Lent, Pigmalion
23. Tambourin, Pigmalion — Rameau/Mulgan
24. Les Sauvages, Les Indes Galantes
25. Contredanse, Pigmalion
Jean-Philippe Rameau 1683-1764, Johan Christoph Pepusch 1667-1752, Thomas Arne 1710-1778
The Beggar’s Opera 1728
The Weaver Ensemble
also offer
Pre-concert Talks: 30 mins Both can be extended to 50 mins with the help of Chiara Vinci — dance, and Lesley Anne Sammons — harpsichord, as lunchtime events for example
Evelyn Nallen
A Detective Story: The Loves of Mars and Venus by John Weaver was the first modern ballet, telling a story through dance, gesture and music. Its first performance was at Drury Lane in 1717. The history books say the score and choreography are lost, but did they ever exist as such?
Stephen Wyatt (our playwright & Ph.D in theatre history from University of Cambridge)
The Eighteenth Century Theatre and the creation of two pieces for the Weaver Ensemble.
Contact us for more information
Notes for Promoters is also available as a pdf - download here (209 KB)