Dido & Aeneas

with Monteverdi Choir & English Baroque Soloists

In 1689, Henry Purcell unveiled what some consider the first ‘operatic’ work created in England – a musical telling of the Queen of Carthage, Dido, and her swift, ill-fated romance with a Trojan prince, Aeneas.

Dido & Aeneas isn’t just England’s first opera – it would also become one of England’s most popular operas. The appeal is easily explained. Dido contains all of what made Purcell, by the turn of the 18th century, the greatest composer England had ever produced – notably his startling gift for the sort of dramatic, moving music that brought the theatrical stage to life.

In this performance, England’s most respected choir and orchestra for baroque music comes to Bergen with conductor Jonathan Sells. Their performance of this vivid and deeply moving work will surely prove as authoritative as it will moving. The concert will also incorporate Purcell’s Funeral Sentences, written for the funeral of Queen Mary II in 1965.

Both entertainment and psychological tragedy, Dido has everything – from choruses of cackling witches and swaggering sailors to music of the most tender, pained beauty. The most famous example of the latter comes in the Queen’s famous ‘Lament’ – a song of grief to whose aching none-bar melody her soul ascends with unmatched poignancy.

Image on top: Monteverdi Choir. Photo: Paul Marc Mitchell

Contributors

• Monteverdi Choir

• English Baroque Soloists

• Jonathan Sells conductor

• Andrew Staples director

• More contributors to be announced

Works

• Henry Purcell (1659–1695)
  Dido and Aeneas (1689)
  Opera in three acts (concert version)
  Libretto by Nahum Tate
  

• Henry Purcell (1659–1695)
  Funeral Sentences for the Queen Mary (1695)