Venus and Adonis
Venus and Adonis is the story of the encounter between the Roman goddess of love (Venus) and a boy hunter (Adonis).
Contents
The original text
The original source is Ovid’s Metamorphoses (Book 10) where a wounded Adonis is killed by a wild boar and transformed into an anemone flower, with Venus willingly loved by Adonis. Shakespeare wrote his own version of Venus and Adonis (1593), a comic, erotic, and tragic narrative poem where an indifferent Adonis rejects the goddess's advances to go hunting.
International stage versions
- Venus and Adonis is an opera in three acts and a prologue by the English Baroque composer John Blow, composed between 1681 - 1684.
- Vénus et Adonis is an opera in a prologue and 5 acts composed by Henri Desmarets to a libretto by Jean-Baptiste Rousseau, it was first performed by the Académie Royale de Musique at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal in Paris on 28 July 1697.
South African stage versions
Performance history in South Africa
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_and_Adonis_(opera)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vénus_et_Adonis
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