operas

Buy - UK
Buy - France
Buy - Germany
Buy - USA

Henry Purcell (1659-1695):
Dido and Aeneas

5099996682128
Opera in three acts
Libretto: Nahum Tate
Dido, Queen of Carthage SUSAN GRAHAM
Aeneas, a Prince of Troy IAN BOSTRIDGE
Belinda CAMILLA TILLING
Second Woman CÉCILE DE BOEVER
Sorceress FELICITY PALMER
Spirit, a false messenger DAVID DANIELS
A Sailor PAUL AGNEW
European Voices
Simon Halsey direction
David Lowe English coach, direction

Le Concert d'Astrée
Emmanuelle Haïm harpsichord & direction
Get Adobe Flash player

Introduction

Emmanuelle Haïm brings her dynamism to Purcell’s one-act masterpiece. The authentic instruments of Le Concert d’Astrée are juxtaposed with the distinctive vocal talents of Susan Graham as Dido, Ian Bostridge as Aeneas, Felicity Palmer as the Sorceress and David Daniels as the Spirit.

Synopsis

Intimate and compact, but epic in expression, Dido and Aeneas is considered the first great English opera. First performed in 1689 at a girl’s boarding school in Chelsea, London, it was rarely seen the 18th and 19th centuries until an important revival at the Royal College of Music. Retaining elements of the courtly masque, notably dance, it features a string orchestra, a chorus and nine solo roles.

After the fall of Troy, Aeneas and a group of followers escaped the Greeks, but were shipwrecked in Carthage, where Aeneas has fallen in love with Queen Dido. A malevolent sorceress conjures up a spirit in the likeness of the god Mercury, which bids Aeneas to leave Carthage and restore the fortunes of Troy on the shores of Italy. When Aeneas tells Dido he must leave, her reaction makes him ready to defy the gods, but her pride is wounded and she tells him to go. Broken-hearted, she dies.

Dido is the dominant presence in the inventive and varied score. Her justly famous dying lament, ‘When I am laid in earth’, is deeply moving and built over a typically Purcellian ground bass, a technique also used in her languishing opening aria ‘Ah! Belinda’.

1 Overture 2.13

ACT THE FIRST

Scene: The Palace
2 Shake the cloud from off your brow (Belinda) 0.36
3 Banish sorrow, banish care (Chorus) 0.31
4 Ah! Belinda, I am pressed with torment (Dido) 4.06
5 Grief increases by concealing (Belinda, Dido) 0.34
6 When monarchs unite, how happy their state (Chorus) 0.15
7 Whence could so much virtue spring? (Dido, Belinda) 1.41
8 Fear no danger to ensue (Belinda, Second Woman, Chorus) 2.14
9 See, your Royal Guest appears (Belinda, Aeneas, Dido) 0.47
10 Cupid only throws the dart (Chorus) 0.35
11 If not for mine, for empire’s sake (Aeneas, Belinda) 1.29
12 To the hills and the vales (Chorus) 1.03
13 The Triumphing Dance 1.26

ACT THE SECOND

Scene One. The Cave
14 Wayward sisters, you that fright (Sorceress, First Witch)
Harm’s our delight (Chorus) 2.11
15 The Queen of Carthage, whom we hate (Sorceress)
Ho Ho Ho! (Chorus) 0.39
16 Ruined ere the set of sun? (First and Second Witch, Sorceress)
Ho Ho Ho! (Chorus) 1.09
17 But ere we this perform (First and Second Witch) 1.12
18 In our deep vaulted cell (Chorus in a manner of an Echo) 1.28
19 Echo Dance of Furies 1.17

Scene Two. The Grove
20 Ritornelle 0.43
21 Thanks to these lonesome vales (Belinda, Chorus) 3.15
22 Oft she visits this lone mountain (Second Woman) 2.18
23 Behold, upon my bending spear (Aeneas, Dido) 0.29
24 Haste, haste to town (Belinda, Chorus) 0.44
25 Stay, Prince, and hear great Jove’s command (Spirit, Aeneas) 2.18

ACT THE THIRD

Scene One. The Ships
26 Come away, fellow sailors (A Sailor, Chorus) 1.35
27 The Sailors’ Dance 0.50
28 See the flags and streamers curling (Sorceress, First and Second Witch ) 1.02
29 Our next motion (Sorceress) 0.42
30 Destruction’s our delight (Chorus) 0.32
31 The Witches’ Dance 1.22

Scene Two
32 Your counsel all is urged in vain (Dido, Belinda, Aeneas) 3.27
33 Great minds against themselves conspire (Chorus) 0.50
34 Thy hand, Belinda; darkness shades me (Dido) 0.57
35 When I am laid in earth (Dido) 3.50
36 With drooping wings (Chorus) 2.16

52.54

  


-->