Venus and Adonis (opera)

Venus and Adonis is an opera in three acts and a prologue by the English Baroque composer John Blow, composed c.1683. It was written for the court of King Charles II at either London or Windsor. It is considered by some to be either a semi-opera or a masque, but The New Grove names it as the earliest surviving English opera. In fact, an early manuscript source is subtitled "A masque for the the entertainment of the king". The author of the libretto is unknown, but is surmised to have been by Aphra Behn due to the feminist nature of the text, and that she later worked with Blow on the play The Lucky Chance. The story is based on the Classical myth of Venus and Adonis, which was also the basis for Shakespeare's poem Venus and Adonis, as well as Ovid's poem of the same name in his Metamorphoses.