Henry Purcell (1659 – 1695) was an English composer. His style of Baroque music was uniquely English, although it incorporated Italian and French elements. Generally considered among the greatest English opera composers, Purcell is often linked with John Dunstaple and William Byrd as England's most important early music composers. No later native-born English composer approached his fame until Edward Elgar, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gustav Holst, William Walton and Benjamin Britten in the 20th century.

Fully titled The Prophetess; or, the History of Dioclesian, Henry Purcell’s 1690 semi-opera has it all: fabulous music; an epic story of love, lust, and politics; and enough special effects to fill a feature film. Like other semi-operas (including Purcell’s King Arthur, which was a follow-up hit to this work), Dioclesian consists of various short works for orchestra, vocalists, and chorus — vigorous dances, pastoral episodes, instrumental interludes, serene solo numbers, lively duets and ensembles, and large choral outbursts. Of particular interest are the masques sung by minor characters: gods and goddesses, shepherds, and the like.

Purcell and librettist Thomas Betterton, who relied on a Jacobean tragicomedy by John Fletcher and Philip Massinger (which, in turn, was based on the life of the third-century Roman emperor Diocletian), tell the story of a Roman foot soldier who rises, through an unlikely set of circumstances, all the way to the imperial throne.

It’s an age-old struggle between love and duty. Diocles comes to the attention of the prophetess Delphia, who advises him that he will become emperor when he has killed a great boar. When he slays a soldier named Volutius Aper — whose name means Wild Boar — he wins the hand of Delphia’s niece, Drusilla. Once engaged, however, Diocles (now named Dioclesian) decides he’d rather marry Aurelia, the sister of the former emperor. Delphia, enraged, unleashes storms, various spells, even a monster sent down to upend the nuptials, whereupon a chastened Dioclesian returns to the original plan and marries Drusilla. The work concludes with lavish festivities in honor of Love.

Purcell responded to the story with a wealth of music — zesty hornpipes leading to boastful odes, a martial song yielding to a diaphanous chaconne for flutes. It’s probably just as well that we didn’t see the score’s “Chair Dance” as it was originally staged, yet the vocal numbers for fawns, bacchanals, shepherds, and shepherdesses are beguiling. It’s all amusingly over the top (several times during Wednesday’s performance, I found myself wishing that Mark Morris would make a dance for this score), and if it lacks a measure of cohesion — characters tend to pop up and just as quickly vanish

Source: Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Purcell).

Although originally composed for Voices (SSATB) & Mixed Chorus (SATB), Baroque Orchestra & Continuo), I created this interpretation of "Canaries" from "The History of Dioclesian" (Z.627 No. 12) for Winds (Flute, Oboe, French Horn & Bassoon) & Strings (2 Violins, Viola & Cello).