poem: if love's a sweet passion - henry purcell (1692)

i press her hand gently, look languishing down

and by passionate silence i make my love known.

but oh! how i'm blest when so kind she does prove

by some willing mistake to discover her love.

when in striving to hide, she reveals her flame

and in our eyes tell each other what neither dares name.

if love's a sweet passion why does it torment?

if a bitter, oh tell me, whence comes my content?

since i suffer with pleasure, why should i complain

or grieve at my fate, when i know it's in vain?

yet so pleasing the pain is so soft as the dart

that at once it both wounds me and tickles my heart.


picture by mckee photography (i hope it's ok that i show it, it's so awesome)

ballet: the fairy queen - henry purcell (1692) by richard wherlock

this was my first ballet ever. the music by henry purcell is barroque, and the dancing was very modern, emotional and also funny. the story is based on shakespeare's a midsummer night's dream (1595), which i absolutely love. a year or so ago i saw the play performed by od-theater, which was really cool. so i was very curious how the matter is transformed into a ballet.

the king of the fairies, oberon, and his queen titania are quarreling about a little indian boy. oberon is jealous and instructs the ne'er-do-well puck to give his wife a love-juice and make her fall in love with a donkey-headed human. this and all kind of other love-stories sum up in a wonderful mess.

the story has also been made into the modern teenage-musical were the world mine (2008), where topics as homosexuality an sexuality itself are nicely taken up. 

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