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Logo Concertgebouw Brugge

Early Opera Company

Purcell. Dido and Aeneas

this event is part of

TOPSTUK PURCELL

orchestral
Birdsong
Cancelled
Sat 13 Mar 2021
This event is cancelled.

Heart to heart in an epic of ill-fated love

Heroic prince meets proud queen, the Gods interfere, tragedy ensues. That is the basic premise of Virgil’s version of Aeneas and Dido. In Nahum Tate's libretto, which Purcell set to music in the 1680s, things are somewhat different. In their Dido and Aeneas, a sinister Sorceress lends fate a helping hand. Spirits easily deceive Trojan prince Aeneas into abandoning Carthaginian queen Dido and going to Italy, where his descendants are destined to found Rome. And Queen Dido herself seems afraid of embracing happiness. All of this tragedy and tension inspired Purcell to compose superlative music, which became an emblem of British culture shortly after his death. The lament When I am Laid in Earth has even become a modern cult classic.

The Early Opera Company and an array of top soloists combine Purcell's masterpiece with Charpentier's one-act opera Actéon. This tragic pastoral tells the same story as that recounted in the Dido and Aeneas aria ‘Oft she visits this lone mountain’. It is based on an episode from Ovid's Metamorphoses.

programme

Henry Purcell (1659-1695)
Dido and Aeneas, Z626

Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643-1704)
Actéon, H481

performers

Early Opera Company: orchestra
Christian Curnyn: artistic director
Kristina Stanek: mezzo-soprano, Dido
Edward Grint: bass-baritone, Aeneas / Chasseur
Hilary Summers: alto, Sorceress / Junon
Anna Dennis: soprano, Belinda / Diane, Daphné
Sam Boden: tenor, Spirit, Sailor / Actéon
Miriam Allan: soprano, 2nd Woman, 2nd Witch / Arthebuze, Hyale

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Early Opera Company: orchestra
Christian Curnyn: artistic director
Kristina Stanek: mezzo-soprano, Dido
Edward

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Cancelled
Sat 13 Mar 2021
This event is cancelled.

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