Opera

Henry Purcell

Dido & Aeneas

04 Feb, 24

Concert version

Musical conductor: Maxim Emelyanychev | Il Pomo d'Oro Orchestra & Choir

With a programme that includes Purcell's most famous opera and Carissimi's Jephte, Joyce DiDonato and Il Pomo d'Oro take to the stage of the Real again this year to perform Dido, Queen of Carthage. The American mezzo-soprano is one of the leading voices of her generation and one of the greatest of the moment with a worldwide reputation, having performed on such outstanding stages as the Metropolitan in New York, the Paris Opera and London's Covent Garden.

In his Heroides, the poet Ovidio created epistles for an illustrious list of abandoned women — among them, Penelope, Dido, Ariadna and, Medea, of course — who would have written to their respective and elusive lovers. The fame of many of these heroines extended into the Baroque era through opera, inspiring one of its most sublime subgenres: the “aria de lamento”. The Lament of Dido in the opera Dido & Aeneas by Henry Purcell clashes with the enraged and resentful lover described by Virgil in the Aeneid. The composer preferred the compassionate portrait of Ovidio, one which shows Dido in the last moments of life as troubled by the sad memory she will leave among her people.

Premiered in 1689 in Mr. Josias Priest’s Boarding School for Girls, and probably conceived to be performed by the boarders of this London school, Dido & Aeneas has become one of the operas of its time to be most performed in our times. It is reinforced by the sensitive portrayal of its female protagonist — who reduces her antagonist to an antihero— and the immediacy, concision, and beauty of its score.

Tragic opera in three acts and a prologue

Music by Henry Purcell (1659-1695)

Libretto by Nahum Tate, based on his play Brutus of Alba or the enchanted lovers (1678) and book IV of Virgil's Aeneid (1st century BC).

Premiere at Mr. Josias Priest’s Boarding School for Young Ladies, Chelsea

Premiere in concert version at the Teatro Real on 18 November 2013

Concert version

Musical conductor: Maxim Emelyanychev

Cast

Dido: Joyce DiDonato

Belinda: Fatma Said

Eneas: Andrew Staples

Spirit: Hugh Cutting