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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)

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