Eccles: The Judgment of Paris

John Eccles’s opera The Judgment of Paris was one of at least four operas on the same libretto (written by William Congreve) composed for the 1701 Prize Musick competition sponsored by the London’s Kit-Cat Club with the aim of promoting native English, all-sung opera; it won second place in the competition, after John Weldon’s setting (Recent Researches in the Music of the Baroque Era, vol. 94, ed. David W. Music), though it later became the most popular of the settings composed for the competition. Scored for soloists, chorus, strings and continuo, with individual movements featuring transverse flute, recorders, and trumpets and timpani, the opera unfolds within a single act and depicts the mythological story of Paris and the three goddesses. This is the first publication of the opera in a critical edition.