John Blow – Venus & Adonis / Joshua · Finley · Blaze · Jacobs

Here we have the very first English opera, with good gossip behind it to boot: John Blow composed the work for private performance at the English court, with King Charles II’s longtime mistress Moll Davis as Venus and their illegitimate 9-year-old daughter playing Cupid. Venus and Adonis isn’t just a historical curiosity, though: it’s a full-scale Versailles-style opera in miniature, the near-equal of Purcell’s more celebrated Dido and Aeneas (evidently composed for similar circumstances). Retired countertenor René Jacobs made quite a splash through the 1990s conducting early opera from Monteverdi to Mozart; the liveliness and dramatic sensitivity that made his reputation as a conductor are much in evidence here. Soprano Rosemary Joshua is excellent in many ways, but she occasionally lets her vibrato spread wide enough to carry her off-pitch; aside from that sporadic flaw, she is a superb Venus: sweet, sensuous, and, in her lament on Adonis’s death, affecting without ever sounding overblown. Baritone Gerald Finley as Adonis nicely blends tenderness and virility; as Cupid, countertenor Robin Blaze is certainly no prepubescent girl (presumably Charlotte Church was unavailable) and the role lies just a bit high for him, but he sings with verve, wit, and genuine charm. –Matthew Westphal