Venus and Adonis (opera)

Venus and Adonis
Opera by John Blow
Cornelis van Haarlem - Venus en Adonis.jpg
Description	masque
Librettist	Aphra Behn or Anne Kingsmill
Based on	Venus and Adonis

Venus and Adonis is an opera in three acts and a prologue by the English Baroque composer John Blow, composed in about 1683. It was written for the court of King Charles II at either London or Windsor. It is considered by some to be either a semi-opera or a masque, but The New Grove names it as the earliest known English opera. The author of the libretto was surmised to have been Aphra Behn due to the feminist nature of the text, and that she later worked with Blow on the play The Lucky Chance. However, according to the musicologist Bruce Wood, in his 2008 critical edition of the work for the Purcell Society, the librettist "has been identified by James Winn as Anne Kingsmill, subsequently married as Anne Finch". The story is based on the Classical myth of Venus and Adonis, which was also the basis for Shakespeare's poem Venus and Adonis, as well as Ovid's poem of the same name in his Metamorphoses. In 2014, this opera was revived as part of the Festival of Chichester by City Wall Productions. Reset in the 1960s during the Grosvenor Square protests, City Wall Productions have reimagined and reset he story for a new generation.