(Leader, ALFRED BARKER )
Conductor, T. H. MORRISON
The irrelevancy of introducing songs and dances into an otherwise straight film, as is done in what the movie-world calls a ' musical would not have astonished Purcell at all; he was used to the idea. A great deal of Purcell's incidental music to the plays of the period was written to satisfy a public whose demand for ear-tickling music in the theatre, no matter what the play, was as insatiable as it is today.
Purcell's music to The Virtuous Wife is of this order. The drama itself does not need it, nor did the dramatist call for it.