2012 two CD set. Disc One is the ethereal side of the Mediaeval Baebes whilst Disc Twp showcases their more folky side. This is the Mediaeval Baebes 15th anniversary and eighth studio album. The Mediaeval Baebes exquisite storybook opened it's pages in 1996, when a group of friends broke into a North London cemetery and sang together, clad in flowing white gowns and crowns of ivy. Pulling lyrics from mediaeval texts and setting them to original scores using mediaeval and classical instruments, whilst singing in an impressive array of long forgotten languages, the Baebes offered a unique musical beauty and outstanding talent.
The libretto of Solomon, author unknown, is strange. Much of Act 1 is devoted to an epithalamium celebrating the wedding of Solomon and an Egyptian princess whom we do not meet again. (The Victorians used to bowdlerize some of the words.) Act 2, much the most dramatic, tells how Solomon solved the famous maternity suit (but how could the false mother agree to the baby's bisection?). Act 3 tells how Solomon stagemanaged and contributed to a short choral masque presented for the entertainment of the Queen of Sheba in return for presents of gold. According to Winton Dean the masque cries Out to be mimed, but even so there is less drama in Solomon than in some of the other oratorios and no overall plot. In 1749, the same soprano, the Italian Frasi, sang both queens, but the parts are better split axon these discs. The soloists are excellent.