On today’s date in 1692, London audiences at the Queen’s Theatre, Dorset Garden, were treated to a lavish theatrical entertainment entitled “The Fairy Queen.”

This show was loosely based on Shakespeare’s comedy “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” a play already 100 years old in 1692. To make it more in line with contemporary taste, characters were added or cut, and scenes were shifted around to such an extent that Shakespeare, if he were alive to see it, would be hard put to recognize much of his original concept.

In Shakespeare’s day, music played a role in all stage presentations, but “The Fairy Queen” featured greatly expanded musical sequences, and the leading British composer of the day was called in to write them.

His name was Henry Purcell, and “The Fairy Queen” would turn out to be the biggest success of his career. In addition to writing the show’s songs and dances, Purcell provided music to entertain the audience as they entered and exited the theater, or stretched their legs during the intermission.

The theater orchestra consisted mostly of strings, but bassoons, oboes, flutes and trumpets also varied the instrumental color at the appropriate dramatic moments.

The good news is that no expense was spared in the show’s production. The bad news was the show’s producers barely recovered their expenses. Subsequent productions, they decided, would be less flashy, but, recognizing the quality of Purcell’s music, they signed him on once again for their next extravaganza.