Purcell - Dido and Aeneas - Classic FM Schedule Purcell - Dido and Aeneas English Baroque composer Henry Purcell wrote his first opera based on the story of Dido, Queen of Carthage, and the Prince of Troy, Aeneas, based on a libretto by Nahum Tate. It was first performed in 1689. Based on book IV of Virgil’s epic poem, The Aeneid, Henry Purcell may have composed his first and only all-sung work around 1685, or perhaps even earlier. The English composer John Blow produced his opera Venus and Adonis, which was partly based on Ovid’s Metamorphoses, with a text by Aphra Behn. It was first performed at the court of Charles II and Purcell was almost certainly sitting in the audience taking it all in. He substituted Virgil for Ovid and the Aeneid for Metamorphoses. Librettist Nahum Tate, rather than Aphra Behn, wrote the text. And instead of the court of Charles II, he favoured the unlikely venue of Josias Priest’s Boarding School for Girls, in Chelsea.

Dido and Aeneas was first performed there around December 1689. As well as a corking overture and some great operatic moments, only slightly dulled by Tate’s occasionally ditty-esque words, Purcell hits the operatic jackpot in terms of a tune at the moment Dido dies. ‘When I am laid in earth’, is an aria of melancholic beauty perhaps unsurpassed in all opera, let alone those written by English composers. 'Ah Belinda' comes in at a close second as a mournful classic. Hailed as a great English Baroque composer, it's perhaps surprising that Dido and Aeneas was Purcell's only official opera. In the ten years that followed, he wrote a five other semi-operas, including Dioclesian in 1690, King Arthur in 1691, The Fairy-Queen in 1692, Timon of Athens 1694, and The Indian Queen 1695. Purcell News dido and aeneas: Synopsis - Opera Libretti Opera Libretti Henry Purcell. Tragic opera in three acts. 1689 or earlier.

Libretto by Nahum Tate, after his play Brutus of Alba and Virgil's Aeneid. First performance at Josias Priest's school in Chelsea, London, before December 1689, with a possible earlier performance as a court masque in 1684. CHARACTERS Spirit, in the form of Mercury soprano Sailor soprano or baritone Dido, the widowed Queen of Carthage, entertains the Trojan Prince Aeneas, shipwrecked on his way to Italy, where he will found a new Troy. Dido and Aeneas are in love. Witches plot Dido’s destruction and the Sorceress conjures a storm, to break out when the royal couple are hunting, and the impersonation of Mercury by one of her coven. The storm duly breaks and the courtiers hasten back to town, while the false Mercury tells Aeneas he must leave Dido and sail for Italy. Aeneas and his sailors prepare to leave, to the delight of the witches. Aeneas parts from Dido, who kills herself once he has gone, her death lamented by mourning cupids.

It has been plausibly suggested that Purcell's short opera Dido and Aeneas was originally designed as a court masque, and possible topical political allusions have been proposed, notably in the light of the future James II's Catholicism, seen to deflect him from his duty as a future king, a hypothetical intrigue that casts the Jesuits as witches. The work owes something to John Blow’s Venus and Adonis of 1683. Most famous of all elements in the opera is Dido's lament, When I am laid in earth, with its descending ground bass borrowed from current Venetian practice. Dido and Aeneas - Opera - Works Dido and Aeneas Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie Mark Morris Dance Group - Théâtre Varia Brussels Belgium Henry Purcell - Dido and Aeneas Libretto Scenic Design Robert Bordo Robert Bordo is the recipient of the 2014 Robert De Niro, Sr. Painting Award.

He lives and works in New York City and Columbia County, New York.Since the mid-1980s, Bordo has shown his paintings internationally in numerous one-person and group exhibitions.He has had nineone-person shows in NYC,most recently at Alexander and Bonin Gallery in 2013. His collaborations with Mark Morris include sets for Dido and Aeneas, Paukenschlag, Stabat Mater, and The Death of Socrates. Robert Bordo is Associate Professor of Art at The Cooper Union, New York, where he leads the painting program. Costume Design Costume Design Christine Van Loon Christine Van Loon was born in Hoeilaart, Belgium, and studied commercial art, costume, and set design. At the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, she worked in both the set and costume departments and with Maurice Béjart’s Ballet of the 20th Century. Ms. Van Loon has designed the costumes for several Mark Morris productions, including Dido and Aeneas and L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato. Lighting Design Lighting Design James F. Ingalls James F.

Ingalls' designs for Mark Morris include Orfeo ed Euridice (Metropolitan Opera); King Arthur (English National Opera); Sylvia, Sandpaper Ballet, Maelstrom, and Pacific (San Franciso Ballet); Platée (Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and New York City Opera); L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, Dido and Aeneas, and The Hard Nut (MMDG); Ein Herz (Paris Opera Ballet); and the initial White Oak Project tour. His work for Lincoln Center includes Zaide, Ainadamar, and Bach Cantatas, all directed by Peter Sellars, and Renaissance Muse, directed by Mark Lamos. At the Metropolitan Opera, Ingalls has also designed An American Tragedy, Salome, Benvenuto Cellini, The Gambler, War and Peace, and Wozzeck. Most recently, he designed A Flowering Tree and La Passion de Simone (New Crowned Hope Festival and the Barbican Centre, London), Doctor Atomic (Holland Festival/De Nederlandse Opera and San Francisco Opera), and The Cherry Orchard at Oregon Shakespeare Festival. He often collaborates with Saint Joseph Ballet in Santa Ana, California.

Instrumentation orchestra, chorus, 4 vocal soloists Number of Dancers 1 hour Press Quotes "A tour de force of late 20th century artistic storytelling...that smashes and rewrites stylistic boundaries. When everyone joined together — musicians, singers, dancers — it proved, yet again, that you didn't need a movie screen to make a blockbuster." Laura Bleiberg - Los Angeles Times "...a production involving all aspects of theater brought together by an artist of imagination and vision." Sandra Genter "...mastery and artistic perfection one only dreams about experiencing." Priscilla McLean - Times Union "Mr. Morris has created a dazzling interpretation of Purcell's superlative work. The more closely you follow it, the more packed its movement is with meanings; even though I have seen the work a number of times over the years, it keeps surprising me." Alastair Macaulay Details A DANCED OPERA'S ORIGIN Dido and Aeneas is a dance adaptation of Henry Purcell’s 1689 eponymous opera, based on Virgil's famous tale of Aeneas' affair with Dido, the Queen of Carthage on his way to founding Rome.

As Director of Dance at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, Belgium, Mark Morris presented this opera with singers stationed in the pit and with the stage reserved exclusively for dancing. The unique combination of baroque vocal music and modern dance underscored Morris’ gift for storytelling and his remarkable ability to shape music and words into movements. THE ROLE Morris cast himself in the dual role of Dido and the evil Sorceress that plots the Queen's demise. This role is one of his most acclaimed. "As he said at the time," biographer Joan Acocella wrote in 1993, "he wanted to expand the expressiveness of male dancers; he wanted to give them what women had. But, artistically, the more important fact was that the gender switch—plus the combining of the heroine and villainess roles—shot the show into a mythic territory, beyond realism and beyond conventional morals." Morris continued to perform the role, opposite Guillermo Resto as Aeneas, until 2000. THE WORK ON FILM In the summer of 1995, a filmed version of Morris' production directed by Barbara Willis Sweete was produced by Rhombus Media.

Sweete, who had previously worked with MMDG on the Emmy award winning film, Falling Down Stairs, recreated the Dido and Aeneas set on a sound stage in Toronto, Canada and filmed the work without the constraints of a proscenium stage. The film captured Mark Morris in his critically acclaimed role, brought the long famed dance sequences to motion picture and television audiences, and is still available on DVD today. THE WORK RETURNS TO THE STAGE When Mark Morris retired the role at the turn of the century, many believed that the only way to re-experience the work was through the film - that no other dancer could replace him. Nonetheless, as part of the 25th anniversary celebration of the Mark Morris Dance Group, the company remounted the work. This time, all dancers were new to the piece except for two who remained from the 1989 premiere cast. Dido and the Sorceress were cast as two separate roles and performed by Amber Star Merkens and Bradon McDonald respectively. Today, the roles Dido and the Sorceress are again performed by one dancer.

"Gone is the Asian-theatre mystery of the opera, the idea that the Queen could be a man, an icon, a principle. She is now a pretty girl from Oregon, and that changes the show radically, restores it to realism. It is impossible not to regret this, but in doing it Morris saved “Dido.” The way to lose a dance—and thousands of dances have been lost thereby—is to stop performing it. The way to preserve it is to recast it and recoach it and put it back onstage." -Joan Acocella MARK MORRIS AS CONDUCTOR Mark Morris has been conducting performances of Dido and Aeneas since 2008, when he first conducted the MMDG Music Ensemble and the George Mason University singers as part of an engagement in in Fairfax, Virginia. Since then, he has conducted performances in Urbana, Illinois (Pacific Symphony Orchestra and the University of Illinois Chamber Singers); in Boston, Massachusetts (Orchestra and Chorus of Emmanuel Music); and in the company's Russian debut in Moscow (MMDG Music Ensemble and Trinity Choir).

Recent performances conducted by Morris at Cal Performances, Berkeley (Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Chorale), and at the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center, New York (MMDG Music Ensemble and Trinity Choir) featured mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe singing the roles of Dido and Sorceress. Related Press Wednesday, December 7, 2016 Purcell: Dido & Aeneas Endnote DIDO AND AENEAS An opera perform'd at Mr. Josias Priest's Boarding School at Chelsey by Young Gentlewomen. The words made by Mr. NAT. TATE The music composed by Mr. HENRY PURCELL Dramatis Personae DIDO BELINDA TWO WOMEN AENEAS SORCERESS ENCHANTRESSES SPIRIT of the Sorceress (Mercury) Dido's train, Aeneas' train, Fairies, Sailors OVERTURE ACT THE FIRST Scene: The Palace [enter Dido, Belinda and train] BELINDA Shake the cloud from off your brow, Fate your wishes does allow; Empire growing, Pleasures flowing, Fortune smiles and so should you.

CHORUS Banish sorrow, banish care, Grief should ne'er approach the fair. DIDO Ah! Belinda, I am prest With torment not to be Confest, Peace and I are strangers grown. I languish till my grief is known, Yet would not have it guest. BELINDA Grief increases by concealing, DIDO Mine admits of no revealing. BELINDA Then let me speak; the Trojan guest Into your tender thoughts has prest; The greatest blessing Fate can give Our Carthage to secure and Troy revive. CHORUS When monarchs unite, how happy their state, They triumph at once o'er their foes and their fate. DIDO Whence could so much virtue spring? What storms, what battles did he sing? Anchises' valour mixt with Venus' charms How soft in peace, and yet how fierce in arms! BELINDA A tale so strong and full of woe Might melt the rocks as well as you. What stubborn heart unmov'd could see Such distress, such piety? DIDO Mine with storms of care opprest Is taught to pity the distrest. Mean wretches' grief can touch, So soft, so sensible my breast, But ah!

I fear, I pity his too much. BELINDA AND SECOND WOMAN [Repeated by Chorus] Fear no danger to ensue, The Hero Loves as well as you, Ever gentle, ever smiling, And the cares of life beguiling, Cupid strew your path with flowers Gather'd from Elysian bowers. DANCE THIS CHORUS THE BASKE [Aeneas enters with his train] BELINDA See, your Royal Guest appears, How Godlike is the form he bears! AENEAS When, Royal Fair, shall I be blest With cares of love and state distrest? DIDO Fate forbids what you pursue. AENEAS Aeneas has no fate but you! Let Dido smile and I'll defy The feeble stroke of Destiny. CHORUS Cupid only throws the dart That's dreadful to a warrior's heart, And she that wounds can only cure the smart. AENEAS If not for mine, for Empire's sake, Some pity on your lover take; Ah! make not, in a hopeless fire A hero fall, and Troy once more expire. BELINDA Pursue thy conquest, Love; her eyes Confess the flame her tongue denies. A DANCE.

GITTARS CHACONY. CHORUS To the hills and the vales, to the rocks and the mountains To the musical groves and the cool shady fountains. Let the triumphs of love and of beauty be shown, Go revel, ye Cupids, the day is your own. THE TRIUMPHING DANCE ACT THE SECOND Scene [I]: The Cave [enter Sorceress] [PRELUDE FOR THE WITCHES] SORCERESS Wayward sisters, you that fright The lonely traveller by night Who, like dismal ravens crying, Beat the windows of the dying, Appear! Appear at my call, and share in the fame Of a mischief shall make all Carthage flame. Appear! [enter Enchantresses] FIRST WITCH Say, Beldam, say what's thy will. CHORUS Harm's our delight and mischief all our skill. SORCERESS The Queen of Carthage, whom we hate, As we do all in prosp'rous state, Ere sunset, shall most wretched prove, Depriv'd of fame, of life and love! CHORUS Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho!

[etc.] TWO WITCHES Ruin'd ere the set of sun? Tell us, how shall this be done? SORCERESS The Trojan Prince, you know, is bound By Fate to seek Italian ground; The Queen and he are now in chase. FIRST WITCH Hark! Hark! the cry comes on apace. SORCERESS But, when they've done, my trusty Elf In form of Mercury himself As sent from Jove shall chide his stay, And charge him sail tonight with all his fleet away. CHORUS Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho! [etc.] [Enter a Drunken Sailor; a dance] TWO WITCHES But ere we this perform, We'll conjure for a storm To mar their hunting sport And drive 'em back to court. CHORUS [in the manner of an echo.] In our deep vaulted cell the charm we'll prepare, Too dreadful a practice for this open air.

ECHO DANCE [Enchantresses and Fairies] Scene [II]: The Grove [enter Aeneas, Dido, Belinda, and their train] RITORNELLE [Orchestra] BELINDA [Repeated by Chorus] Thanks to these lovesome vales, These desert hills and dales, So fair the game, so rich the sport, Diana's self might to these woods resort. GITTER GROUND A DANCE SECOND WOMAN Oft she visits this lov'd mountain, Oft she bathes her in this fountain; Here Actaeon met his fate, Pursued by his own hounds, And after mortal wounds Discover'd, discover'd too late. [A Dance to entertain Aeneas by Dido's women] AENEAS Behold, upon my bending spear A monster's head stands bleeding, With tushes far exceeding Those did Venus' huntsman tear. DIDO The skies are clouded, hark! how thunder Rends the mountain oaks a sunder. BELINDA [Repeated by Chorus] Haste, haste to town, this open field No shelter from the storm can yield.

[exeunt Dido and Belinda and train] [The Spirit of the Sorceress descends to Aeneas in the likeness of Mercury] SPIRIT Stay, Prince and hear great Jove's command; He summons thee this Night away. AENEAS Tonight? SPIRIT Tonight thou must forsake this land, The Angry God will brook no longer stay. Jove commands thee, waste no more In Love's delights, those precious hours, Allow'd by th'Almighty Powers To gain th' Hesperian shore And ruined Troy restore. AENEAS Jove's commands shall be obey'd, Tonight our anchors shall be weighed. [Exit Spirit.] But ah! what language can I try My injur'd Queen to Pacify: No sooner she resigns her heart, But from her arms I'm forc'd to part. How can so hard a fate be took? One night enjoy'd, the next forsook. Yours be the blame, ye gods! For I Obey your will, but with more ease could die.

THE SORCERESS AND HER ENCHANTRESSES (CHORUS) Then since our Charmes have sped, A Merry Dance be led By the Nymphs of Carthage to please us. They shall all Dance to ease us, A Dance that shall make the Spheres to wonder, Rending those fair Groves asunder. THE GROVES DANCE ACT THE THIRD Scene: The Ships [enter the Sailors, the Sorceress, and her Enchantresses] PRELUDE FIRST SAILOR [Repeated by Chorus] Come away, fellow sailors, your anchors be weighing. Time and tide will admit no delaying. Take a bouzy short leave of your nymphs on the shore, And silence their mourning With vows of returning But never intending to visit them more. THE SAILORS' DANCE SORCERESS See the flags and streamers curling Anchors weighing, sails unfurling. FIRST WITCH Phoebe's pale deluding beams Guilding more deceitful streams. SECOND WITCH Our plot has took, The Queen's forsook. TWO WITCHES Elissa's ruin'd, ho, ho! Our plot has took, The Queen's forsook, ho, ho!

SORCERESS Our next Motion Must be to storme her Lover on the Ocean! From the ruin of others our pleasures we borrow, Elissa bleeds tonight, and Carthage flames tomorrow. CHORUS Destruction's our delight Delight our greatest sorrow! Elissa dies tonight and Carthage flames tomorrow. [Jack of the the Lanthorn leads the Spaniards out of their way among the Enchantresses.] A DANCE [Enter Dido, Belinda and train] DIDO Your counsel all is urged in vain To Earth and Heav'n I will complain! To Earth and Heav'n why do I call? Earth and Heav'n conspire my fall. To Fate I sue, of other means bereft The only refuge for the wretched left. BELINDA See, Madam, see where the Prince appears; Such Sorrow in his looks he bears As would convince you still he's true. [enter Aeneas] AENEAS What shall lost Aeneas do? How, Royal Fair, shall I impart The God's decree, and tell you we must part?

DIDO Thus on the fatal Banks of Nile, Weeps the deceitful crocodile Thus hypocrites, that murder act, Make Heaven and Gods the authors of the Fact. AENEAS By all that's good ... DIDO By all that's good, no more! All that's good you have forswore. To your promis'd empire fly And let forsaken Dido die. AENEAS In spite of Jove's command, I'll stay. Offend the Gods, and Love obey. DIDO No, faithless man, thy course pursue; I'm now resolv'd as well as you. No repentance shall reclaim The injur'd Dido's slighted flame. For 'tis enough, whate'er you now decree, That you had once a thought of leaving me. AENEAS Let Jove say what he will: I'll stay! DIDO Away, away! No, no, away! AENEAS No, no, I'll stay, and Love obey! DIDO To Death I'll fly If longer you delay; Away, away!..... [Exit Aeneas] But Death, alas! I cannot shun; Death must come when he is gone.

CHORUS Great minds against themselves conspire And shun the cure they most desire. DIDO [Cupids appear in the clouds o're her tomb] Thy hand, Belinda, darkness shades me, On thy bosom let me rest, More I would, but Death invades me; Death is now a welcome guest. When I am laid in earth, May my wrongs create No trouble in thy breast; Remember me, but ah! forget my fate. CHORUS With drooping wings you Cupids come, To scatter roses on her tomb. Soft and Gentle as her Heart Keep here your watch, and never part. CUPIDS DANCE FINIS Endnote: The text of the Prologue is here omitted, as music has not survived for it. Music is missing also for some of the parts of the opera proper, but some attempts have been made to reconstruct them in some productions. The text here does not guarantee faithfulness to any given spelling convention or any particular version of the text, except perhaps the original 1689 print.

Initially input by: Lyle Neff, lneff@ucs.indiana.edu Dido and Aeneas | opera by Purcell | Britannica.com opera by Purcell THIS IS A DIRECTORY PAGE. Britannica does not currently have an article on this topic. Learn about this topic in these articles: in Henry Purcell: Music for theatre ...into spoken drama, though occasionally there were opportunities for more extended musical scenes. His contribution to the stage was in fact modest until 1689, when he wrote Dido and Aeneas (libretto by Nahum Tate) for performance at a girls’ school in Chelsea; this work achieves a high degree of dramatic intensity within a narrow framework. From that time until...

Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas in Text and Music Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas in Text and Music in Classics — October 14, 2011 at 12:42 PM | 3 comments Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Aeneas Introducing Cupid as Ascanius to Dido, 1757, Villa Valmarana, Vicenza By Patrick Hunt After more than three centuries, Henry Purcell’s (1659-95) sole opera Dido and Aeneas remains a treasure. Considered the greatest operatic achievement of 17th century England [1] and the first great English opera, [2] even though a performance only takes little more than an hour, it is often justified as holding its position as the finest English opera ever written until the 20th century. [3] Despite the opera’s mostly forgotten status from 1700 to the 1890’s when it was revived by the Royal College of Music at the Lyceum Theatre in 1895, who could ever forget the haunting aria, Dido’s Lament, “When I am Laid to Rest”?

More on this incomparable aria follows shortly. The earliest full score of Purcell’s music for the opera is late, circa 1750 from a Bodleian Library copy in Oxford. [4] Portrait of Henry Purcell, circa 1680, London (public domain) Although arguable, while Purcell was clearly influenced by his master John Blow, the question of how much Dido and Aeneas owes to Blow’s own 1683 opera Venus and Adonis remains to be seen. Debate continues because while traditionally thought to have premiered at Josiah Priest’s school for girls in Chelsea in 1689, good arguments for Dido and Aeneas’ earlier composition and performance in 1684 have been proposed and debated, with some claims of even having been written as early as 1677. [5] The storyline of Purcell’s opera is roughly taken from Virgil’s Aeneid, Book 4, as briefly discussed below.

Notable too is the libretto by Nahum Tate (1652-1715), himself a Poet Laureate of England from 1692-1712, [6] and famous hymnist-poet, for example, of the circa 1703 carol “While Shepherds Watched Their Flockes.” Tate’s libretto for Dido and Aeneas was adapted from his own 1678 masque, Brutus of Alba, or The Enchanted Lovers. Tate was often vilified for his “mutilations and tortures” of Shakespearian plays like King Lear and Richard II, and while attacked by Richard Addison and Alexander Pope for his textual liberties with Shakespeare – already holy ground – no less than Samuel Johnson came to Tate’s defense on occasion, perhaps to be contrarian but just as likely because Tate’s tragic adaptations also had some merit of their own, like the later Charles Lamb’s Tales from Shakespeare. [7] Tate was certainly recognized as a a celebrated poet and successful dramatist in 17th century London by royalty, his literary peers and theater-goers alike.

[8] Nahum Tate, Portrait Engraving, circa 1685, London (public domain) Tate and his better-known poet contemporary John Dryden who translated Virgil’s Aeneid, collaborated on occasion, including in Absalom and Athitophel in 1682 and elsewhere in The Loyal General (1680). Both of these celebrated poets also wrote “Odes on St. Cecilia’s Day”, Dryden’s 1687 poem receiving the greater, more enduring fame. [9] Given their collaboration, it must be Dryden’s Aeneid 4 translation that best informs Tate’s libretto. Comparisons of the Dryden and Tate texts, however, in the most dramatic moments shows they have little in common beyond plot highlights. This is best seen, for example, when Dido commits suicide (Act III of the opera, 4.642-705 in the lines of Virgil’s original epic Latin poem).

In this tragic climax, the actual texts of Tate’s lyrics are clearly not derivable from Virgil via Dryden, and sometimes echo only the faintest of ideas of the mise-en-scène : First Dryden: “Then shalt thou call on injur’d Dido’s name: Dido shall come in a black sulph’ry flame, When death has once dissolv’d her mortal frame; Shall smile to see the traitor vainly weep: Her angry ghost, arising from the deep, Shall haunt thee waking, and disturb thy sleep. At least my shade thy punishment shall know, And Fame shall spread the pleasing news below…” Thus Dido prophesies that even before Aeneas goes to the Underworld in Aeneid Book 6 and while there on his journey, this scène noir is what he’ll find. Later in Dryden’s translation, Dido weeps to Juno and her Punic gods: “…Receive a soul, of mortal anguish eas’d: My fatal course is finish’d; and I go, A glorious name, among the ghosts below. A lofty city by my hands is rais’d, Pygmalion punish’d, and my lord appeas’d.

What could my fortune have afforded more, Had the false Trojan never touch’d my shore!” [Dryden] For comparison with Dryden, as well as Virgil’s own incredibly dark lyrics, here is the most famous of Purcell and Tate’s collaboration in the aria lyrics of “Dido’s Lament: When I am Laid in Earth” from Tate’s libretto: “When I am laid, am laid in earth, may my wrongs create No trouble, no trouble in thy breast. When I am laid, am laid in earth, may my wrongs create No trouble, no trouble in thy breast. Remember me, remember me, but ah! Forget my fate. Remember me, but ah! Forget my fate. Remember me, remember me, but ah! Forget my fate. Remember me, but ah! Forget my fate.” Without making any obvious borrowing of even a Virgilian-Drydenesque phrase, in the above text of “Dido’s Lament” Tate has tightly compressed Dryden’s Virgilian translation of several of Dido’s monologues into a highly distilled, emotionally powerful mournful lyric full of irony but stripped of all the venom against Aeneas.

Dido and Aeneas manuscript Title Page , John Hindle / Samuel Howard copyists, 1677? (public domain) Since he has elsewhere (Act II, Scene 1) invented sorceresses and witches in his libretto, characters who do not appear in the Aeneid, Tate is only loosely following Classical precedents. On the other hand, like Act II, Scenes 1 & 2, Aeneid 4:130-70 does indeed have a hunting scene with Aeneas and Dido and a cave where Venus brings the lovers Dido and Aeneas together by divine trickery. Tate’s messenger of the sorceress – disguised as Mercury – also hollowly imitates Virgil’s Mercury with both messengers’ commands from “Jove” for Aeneas to leave Carthage (Aeneid 4:220-75), thereby abandoning Dido. Finally, Tate’s Act III also parallels Virgil’s original contexts with both the harbor of Carthage (Aeneid 4:535-80) and the culminating palace scene with Dido’s suicide (Aeneid 4:642-705).

Nonetheless, it is fair to say that Nahum Tate is a far more biblically than Classically-inspired poet. One of the first pieces of keyboard music I learned to play was a Purcell ‘Hornpipe’, and I’ve never forgotten this delightful melody with its inverted second part and the austere but perfect counterpoint in this little gem. Although he also borrowed and adapted folk tunes, Purcell was a supreme melodist who created some of the best tunes in English music, [10] as his ‘Hornpipe’ and “Dido’s Lament” attest. Dido's Suicide by Simone Vouet (1590-1649) Thus, it is expected that I can hardly ever tire of the musical plangency of “Dido’s Lament: When I am Laid to Rest.” I can actually listen to recordings of it ten times in a row, either by the same soprano or by another, especially with its downward ground bass instrumental accompaniment in strings and/or keyboard. The song featured as a central highlight in the blockbuster BBC 1998 film version of Thackeray’s Vanity Fair 1998.

My favorite recordings have included Dame Janet Baker’s, Leontyne Price’s, Jessye Norman’s, Rene Fleming’s, or Sarah Connolly’s interpretations, mostly mezzo solos. I seem to often prefer the richness of the young Leontyne Price recordings as most profound, but I also recently heard the non-operatic Alison Moyet’s version, and also found it stunning as an alto solo. Even though some “purists” could fault Moyet’s deeper interpretation as inauthentic and questionably Classical, perhaps it is as accessible as any piece of 17th music ever could be three hundred years after the fact. This is an eternal song that can color one’s dreams lifelong. It is possible that Tate’s idea of a lament for Dido may also have been influenced by English biblical use of the Hebrew poetic form, the literary qinah, for example as found in the text of II Samuel 1 when King David mourns Jonathan’s and King Saul’s death by the marauding Philistines on Mt.

Gilboa.[11] Tate was certainly familiar with biblical texts, having poeticized Psalms and other texts, and his clergyman father Faithfull Teate (son Nahum changed his name’s spelling in 1677) had been a famous preacher and also a poet, both of them having graduated from Trinity College, Dublin, before moving back and forth to London. The qinah was a Semitic literary form, predating Hebrew in Ugarit, and if we can rightly expect Dido’s Punic descendants of Phoenicians to have had a similar lament as their ancestors it might not have been such an unlikely prescience for the biblically astute Tate to appropriate the biblical qinah lament form, although few before Bishop Lowth (1710-1787) had formally studied Hebrew poetry assiduously. Whatever may be said of Nahum Tate’s liberties or weaknesses as his critics have claimed, his artful collaboration with Henry Purcell on this opera, and in particular this most haunting of arias (“Dido’s Lament”) is as successful as any librettist-composer relationship in Classical music. Notes: [1] C. A. Price.

Henry Purcell and the London Stage. Cambridge University Press, 1984; E. T. Harris. Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. Oxford, 1990. [2] M. Kennedy, ed. The Oxford Dictionary of Music. Oxford, rev. 2nd ed. 2006, 699 [3] D. M. Randel. The Harvard Concise Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Belknap/Harvard University Press, 1999, 466. [4] W. H. Cummings. Dido and Aeneas, Dover repr. 1995, x. There is another partial score copied by John Travers from 1720. [5] B. Wood and A. Pinnock. ” ‘Unscarr’d by Turing Times’? The Dating of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas.” Early Music 20.3 (1992) 372-90; A. R. Walkling.

“The dating of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas.” Early Music 22.3 (1994) 469-81. Note above image of a manuscript title page by the copyist hands of Hindle & Howard and claiming a date of 1677, very early indeed, which would certainly antedate John Blow’s 1683 Venus and Adonis. [6] B. Corman, “Nahum Tate”. The Literary Encyclopedia (2003). [7] technically Charles and Mary Lamb’s Tales from Shakespeare, circa 1807. My copy was published in 1964 by Paul Hamlyn in London. Although the genius twists of plots are Shakespeare, these 19th c. prose tales have a life of their own. [8] C. Spencer. Nahum Tate (Twayne’s English Author Series). Twayne Publishers, 1972. [9] D. Hopkins. “The London Odes on St.

Cecilia’s Day for 1686, 1695 and 1696.” The Review of English Studies, New Series 45.180 (1994) 486-495. [10] M. Adams. Henry Purcell: The Origins and Development of His Musical Style. Cambridge University Press, 1995. [11] Or likewise in Hebrew prophets like Jeremiah and the biblical book of Lamentations. Also see W. H. Shea. “David’s Lament”. Bulletin of the Schools of Oriental Studies 221.14 (1976) 141-44, noting derivations from the Pre-Phoenician Ugaritic qinah form. PURCELL: Dido and Aeneas Henry PURCELL (1659 - 1695) Dido and Aeneas Although little is known about the origins of Dido and Aeneas we do know that it was performed in 1689 at an annual concert at the well-known Josias Priest's boarding-school for Young Gentlewomen in Chelsea.

Despite convincing evidence that the work was conceived for such a performance, some scholars believe that it was in fact first performed at Court some years earlier and that a performance in 1700, when the music was used in revival of Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, more accurately reflected Purcell's original lay-out of voices. The Scholars Baroque Ensemble have opted for an allocation of voices which is probably closer to the 1689 performance. The Sorceress is given to a mezzo-soprano (what a wonderful part for the resident school nurse!), the Witches are sopranos and the Spirit is countertenor. With regard to instrument, the bass violin (slightly larger than a cello) is used instead of the pairing of cello and double-bass, which did not come into practice until after Purcell's death. Not all of Purcell's music for Dido and Aeneas is extant and, in particular, problems arise from the lack of music to end the second act. The libretto calls for a final chorus and dance and something is certainly needed to round off the act and bring the music back to the home key of D.

Rather than adapt music from another of Purcell's works, we have chosen the simple but effective device of repeating in instrumental form the chorus from the beginning of the same scene. The two Guitar Dances are improvised as implied in the 1689 libretto as is the "Horrid Music" after the Echo Dance of Furies. A thunder sheet is used after the Triumphing Dance and to accompany the "Horrid Music" as called for in the libretto and has additionally been employed in numbers 26 and 27, as the text seems to cry out for it. The Drunken Sailors' Dance in Act 2 is an arrangement for two violins by William Thorp of Row Well, Ye Mariners, a popular tune which can be found in all editions of John Playford's The English Dancing Master (1651 - c. 1728).

David van Asch Dido, Queen of Carthage - Kym Amps (soprano) Belinda, her sister - Anna Crookes (soprano) Second Woman - Ghislaine Morgan (soprano) Sorceress - Sarah Connolly (mezzo-soprano) First Witch - Ghislaine Morgan (soprano) Second Witch - Anna Crookes (soprano) Spirit - Angus Davidson (countertenor) Aeneas, a Trojan prince - David van Asch (bass) First Sailor - Robin Doveton (tenor) David Gould (countertenor), Julian Podger (tenor), Colin Campbell (bass) Henry Purcell, one of the greatest English composers, before English music was overwhelmed by the activities of Handel in the next century, was born in 1659, the son of a musician Thomas Purcell and nephew of Henry Purcell, both of whom served as gentlemen of the Chapel Royal after the restoration of the monarchy in 1660.

At the age of ten the younger Henry Purcell became a chorister at the Chapel Royal under Captain Henry Cooke, who had been charged with the task of reviving the Chapel after the years of Commonwealth rule under Cromwell. In 1672 Cooke died and was succeeded as Master of the Children of the Chapel Royal by Pelham Humfrey, who had been sent to study abroad in France and Italy, after great success as a boy chorister and composer. Purcell took lessons from Humfrey, and two years later, after the latter's early death, from John Blow, the new Master of the Children. The same year brought the appointment of Purcell, whose voice had by now broken, as organ tuner at Westminster Abbey, where he became organist five years later, in 1679. His position as a composer had already been acknowledged by appointment in 1677 as composer in ordinary for the Twenty-Four Violins of the King, the group of musicians established by Charles II in imitation of the practice of the French court.

Purcell's career went on as it had begun, with continuing royal favour, allowing the composition of a series of Welcome Songs and Odes for the celebration of royal occasions and appointment to the King's private music under James II and William III, in addition to appointment as an organist at the Chapel Royal. Under the joint monarchy of William and Mary he provided notable music for the Queen's birthdays, as he did for her death which took place in late December 1694. Eleven months later Purcell himself was dead, having caught cold, it was later rumoured, from being locked out by his wife, tired of his late hours. As a composer he had written a large amount of music, sacred and secular. In addition to the Odes and Welcome Songs were anthems, service settings, hymns, psalms and sacred songs. His secular songs included catches, three-part songs, duets and solo songs with continuo. Instrumental music by Purcell ranges from relatively conservative compositions for groups of string instruments to sets of trio sonatas that acknowledge a debt to Italy, and suites for harpsichord.

Over a period of some fifteen years he wrote music for the theatre, providing music for plays from Nathaniel Lee's tragedy Theodosius in 1680 to the stuttering poet Thomas D'Urfey's Comical History of Don Quixote in 1695. He enjoyed a particularly close association with the United Companies, formed from the Dorset Gardens and Drury Lane companies, during the last seven years of his life. Opera, an art that had developed in Italy throughout the seventeenth century and in France with Lully had reached a high degree of dramatic sophistication, had found no proper permanent place in London, and was not to do so until Handel settled there as a composer of Italian opera. As a genre Italian opera was, in any case, to arouse in some quarters a measure of ridicule for its lack of apparent dramatic realism, a critical attitude fomented by linguistic and national prejudices. Purcell himself contributed to the hybrid English form now generally known as semi-opera, in which drama and music were intrinsically combined.

He wrote, however, only one short English opera in the true sense of the word, Dido and Aeneas, its first recorded performance in 1689 at Josias Priest's Chelsea boarding-school for young ladies. The fashionable school run by Josias Priest and his wife had been taken over from two former members of the Chapel Royal. Priest himself, described as a dancing-master, had served as a choreographer for the London theatre and had a considerable reputation. In 1684 the school had mounted a performance of John Blow's Venus and Adonis, a work that had obvious influence on Purcell. Described as a masque, this work had originally been presented as a court entertainment, and it has been cogently suggested that Purcell's Dido and Aeneas had been written for a similar purpose. If this were to have been so, then suggested allegorical interpretations of the work seem more possible, following the common practice in royal entertainment. Under Charles II there had been attempts to introduce French opera to England, with other French fashions, and this had involved the expected element of political allegory, as in Louis Grabu's Albion and Albanius.

The known date of performance in Chelsea suggested to an earlier scholar the notion that Aeneas might represent King William and Dido Queen Mary, although the story could have served as no great compliment to either. An earlier dating of the work, perhaps to 1684 or 1685, would allow an allegory more recently suggested, in which Aeneas might be identified with the Duke of York, later James II, Dido with England and the Sorceress and her companions with the influential Society of Jesus. This interpretation sees Dido and Aeneas as essentially a political warning to James, the first reigning Catholic monarch since the days of Queen Mary a century earlier. The present recording opts for certainty rather than speculation, taking its cue from the known fact of the 1689 performance. It should be added that the earliest source of the music for the opera dates from 1750 and that in some respects what survives differs from the libretto of 1689, notably in the absence of a setting of the Prologue and the omission of the ending of the second act.

Matters have been further complicated by a later use of the work, adapted to fit into a greatly adapted version of Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, staged at Lincoln's Inn Fields in 1700. The music that survives, in fact, may differ in a number of respects from the music heard in 1689. Nahum Tate, later poet laureate in succession to Shadwell, provided the text for Purcell's opera, basing it on Book IV of Virgil's Aeneid, which deals with the arrival of Aeneas in Carthage, ship-wrecked on his way from Troy, destroyed by the Greeks, to the West, where he is destined to found a new Troy, Rome. Virgil's epic is itself a political allegory, providing Rome with its own Homeric epic and Augustus, the first of the emperors, with appropriate lineage, while explaining the enmity between Rome and Carthage that had led to the complete destruction of the latter. Aeneas, in Virgil's poem, falls in love with Dido, Queen of Carthage, herself a refugee from Phoenicia.

He is urged by the gods, however, to fulfil his divine mission and voyage to Italy, leaving Dido to kill herself on her own funeral pyre, the smoke of which he sees as he sails away. Tate's version of the story adds a contemporary dramatic and choreographic touch in the introduction of a Sorceress and her companions, the equivalent of Shakespeare's Hecate and her beldams in Macbeth and a number of other stage witches of similar propensities. Now the love of Dido and Aeneas and the tragedy caused by Aeneas's departure are provoked by sorcery. It is this that produces the storm, a purely natural event in Virgil, as in the opera of Berlioz, from which the couple shelter in a cave. Sorcery, in Nahum Tate's version, seems designed simply to "mar their hunting sport", leaving the participants to hurry back to town in relative decorum, but providing an opportunity for a "trusty elf' to impersonate the god Mercury and urge Aeneas to fulfil his fated mission. For the Sorceress and her witches harm and destruction is their delight.

Synopsis [1] The opera opens with an overture in French style, a slow dotted rhythm introduction followed by a quicker fugal section, for four-part string orchestra with continuo. ACT I [2] The act opens in the palace of Dido, urged to banish sorrow by her sister Belinda and her women. [3] Dido, however, is sad, a stranger now to peace. The music unwinds over a repeated ground bass. A brief ritornello follows. [4] Belinda tries to persuade Dido to reveal her feelings. [5] The courtiers add their exhortation to Dido to marry Aeneas and find strength in their union. [6] Dido sings of her admiration for brave Aeneas and her pity for his distress. [7] Belinda and one of the women of the court, supported by other courtiers, assure Dido that Aeneas loves her. [8] Aeneas now approaches, with his followers, resolved to defy Fate and stay with Dido. [9] The chorus sings of the power of Cupid. [10] Aeneas seeks Dido's pity and Belinda urges Cupid to make assurance yet surer.

[11] A Dance Guitars Chacony, an improvised chaconne, a set of variations over a simple traditional harmonic pattern, follows, as suggested in the libretto. [12] The chorus urges that love's triumphs be bruited abroad. [13] The act ends with a Triumphing Dance. ACT II Scene I [14] Thunder is heard. The scene is the witches' cave. During the opening prelude the Sorceress enters, summoning the witches at her call. [15] The witches now proclaim their purpose, to cause harm. [16] The Sorceress reminds them of their hatred for the Queen of Carthage. [17] The witches now join, in initial canon, in a chorus of delight in the harm they intend to cause. [18] They plan to bring ruin on Dido and the Sorceress explains how this can be done by sending a spirit in the form of Mercury to urge Aeneas to leave. [19] The witches resume their song of delight. [20] There is a dance.

[21] Two of the witches now plan to raise a storm, to break up the planned hunting party and isolate Aeneas from the others. [22] The witches, in their cavern, sing of the evil they intend, the walls of the cave casting back an echo as they sing. [23] The scene ends with an Echo Dance of the Furies, described in the libretto as an Eccho Dance. Inchanteresses and Fairees, with instrumental phrases echoed in the cavern. Scene II [24] A ritornello introduces the second scene, set in a grove. [25] Dido, Belinda, Aeneas and their followers join Belinda in praising the place and the sport. [26] There is an improvised guitar dance on a ground and one of the courtiers sings of Diana, the huntress, chaste and fair, seen by Actaeon as she bathed, and of his death, killed by his own hounds. There is a dance to entertain Aeneas and his followers. [27] Aeneas has succeeded in the hunt, and carries on his spear the head of a boar he has killed.

Dido, however, hears the sound of thunder and bids the company hurry back to town. [28] The chorus takes up the suggestion with greater energy. [29] Aeneas, however, is detained by a spirit, a creature of the witches, in the guise of Mercury. The spirit warns Aeneas that he must go, to the latter's dismay, for how can he now leave her, after one night together. [30] The scene and act end with a ritornello derived from the chorus at the start of the scene. ACT III (Scene I) [31] The scene is now by the Trojan ships, where a sailor exhorts his fellows to come away. [32] The sailors dance. [33] The Sorceress and her witches are delighted at the success of their plan, as the ships prepare to sail. [34] Aeneas will meet a storm at sea, the Sorceress announces, Dido will die that night and the next day Carthage will burn. [35] The witches echo her pleasure in the evil she has brought about.

[36] The witches dance and Jack o'Lantern, Jack of the Lanthorn, leads the Spaniards out of their way among the Inchanteresses, as the libretto prescribes, although the "Spaniards", a distinct anachronism here, must be presumed a printer's error for "sailors". (Scene II) [37] The scene is now the palace. Dido is in despair and Aeneas comes to make what excuse he can for his departure, hesitating, while Dido urges him to go and he declares his intention of staying, in spite of Jove's command. He leaves. [38] The chorus sententiously observes that great minds are their own worst enemies. [39] Dido now tells Belinda that death is near. [40] In the final great lament, over a ground bass, Dido sings of her approaching death. [41] A chorus of cupids appears above, with drooping wings, lamenting Dido's death, in music suggested by Blow's chorus of mourning for the death of Adonis.

The Scholars Baroque Ensemble The Scholars Baroque Ensemble was founded in 1987 by David van Asch with the idea of complementing the "a capella" work of the vocal ensemble The Scholars. This group, consisting also of the soprano Kym Amps, counter tenor Angus Davidson and tenor Robin Doveton, has had worldwide success during the last twenty five years. The members of The Scholars Baroque Ensemble are all specialists in the field of Baroque music and play original instruments (or copies) using contemporary techniques. Singers and players work together without a director to produce their own versions of great masterpieces such as the St John Passion by Bach, the 1610 Vespers by Monteverdi, Dido and Aeneas and The Fairy Queen by Purcell, Messiah and Acis and Galalea by Handel, all of which have been recorded for Naxos. Concert performances by the ensemble have been highly praised by critics and audiences alike.

The artistic aim of the ensemble goes beyond the search for so-called "authenticity"; more important is the clarity and vitality achieved by the use of a minimum number of players and singers per part, normally only one (as in this recording), which was common practice in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Violin I: Pauline Nobes Aeneas and Dido: In the beginning there are the words | Ottawa Citizen Aeneas and Dido: In the beginning there are the words Published on: July 24, 2015 | Last Updated: July 24, 2015 4:06 PM EST Andre Alexis has written the libretto for the piece Aeneas and Dido. In opera there are two composers at work — the one who wrote the music and the librettist who prepared the words to be sung. It is a symbiotic relationship. But what comes first, the words or the music? For composer James Rolfe, an Ottawa native, and librettist Andre Alexis, the words come first.

They have a long-standing musical partnership, one that has produced several works including the short piece Aeneas and Dido that will be performed July 27 as part of Chamberfest. They met in 1980 at the Banff Centre at a :composers and librettists” symposium. “He was there by himself and he had a libretto (by the poet George Elliot Clarke) that he was working on,” Alexis recalled. They hit it off and started to work together. “How we normally work is I’ll have an idea, he’ll have an idea and they bounce pretty much back and forth. “A librettist is putting down an emotional map that the composer uses to build the most powerful element, which is the music. In my life I have yet to find a composer who will write a piece and allow me to put words to it.” That is almost forbidden fruit, says Alexis, also a well-known novelist. “I would love to have a composed piece to play with. They take a text and they fool around with it. It would be interesting to have 20 minutes of music that I now have to use and think about.

Where is it quiet, for example, and how many words can I squeeze in there? But that has never happened. Composers tend to prefer to begin with the emotional map (provided by words). “I don’t think there are many librettists who would work the way I would like to. I just happen to like the experimental side of being forced to deal with somebody else’s emotional journey.” The librettist, Alexis says, needs to ask himself: Are the words singable? Is the rhythm of this phrase “doable” by the singer? Can it be understood clearly? How much repetition do you do? Alexis, who has worked with other composers too, knows that sometimes the message of the words can be lost in the music. Even though, he says, Rolfe is very careful to ensure the words are heard. “Others can be less careful of the words. So messages can get buried and that makes for interesting challenges for the staging of the story.” Alexis comes by music naturally. As a 14-year-old he wanted to be a guitarist and living in the Windsor area he listened to a lot of music.

Motown, of course, but also the underground FM scene that featured blues, jazz and all the Tubular Bells he could handle. While he didn’t become a musician, he did become a broadcaster for CBC Radio, programming his my own music show for a year or two. He also developed a love of opera. “I’m very much a believer that it is the complete art form. Wagner may have been a horrible person in a lot of ways but I believe him when he talks about opera being the complete art form. The singing, the words, it gives you a lot of possibilities as a creator. The only sad thing about opera is that for a long time it was exclusive to a certain class. “That’s too bad because I think it still colours (the perception of) the art form. I think it can appeal to anybody. “I remember seeing an operatic piece called Shockheaded Peter (1998) based on German fairy tales. That was fantastic in a way that I found very inspiring. It was a total event.” Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde is also a favorite. “It’s so over the top, it is magnificent. Wagner’s libretto makes you feel as a writer that you don’t have courage.

If Wagner can do that then you should be at least able to do half of that. “I find it tremendously inspiring in a way I find few pieces inspiring. It issues a challenge: Can you be at this level? Most of us can’t, but at least we know where that level is. The Meeting of Dido and Aeneas by Nathaniel Dance (1735-1811) His piece is being paired with the English opera Dido and Aeneas which was written by Henry Purcell and first performed in 1688. Both works are based on the fourth book of the epic poem The Aeneid by Virgil written between 29 and 19 BC. When Aeneas, the son of Troy who leads the survivors of the battle to seek a new home, he stops in Carthage and meets its queen, Dido. She falls for him and when he leaves to fulfill his destiny as the founder of Rome, she kills herself. “One of the single nicest things about working with classical subjects is that everybody has an expectation. They know the story, so when you are writing the text or the music you get to play with that and go against it … or go with it.

Aeneas and Dido and an earlier work Orpheus and Eurydice took Alexis back to the Greek myths and that exploration has influenced his most recent novel called Fifteen Dogs with its reference to Greek gods. Alexis says that by playing with a familiar story, it has the effect of rejuvenating the story. “People talk about the alienation effect (Berthold Brecht’s principle of “making the familiar strange”). In life, things disappear because we are so used to them. We see a table every day and eventually we no longer really see the table.” Until the table is moved. “It is the same with a familiar story. Screw around with it and it lives again. A writer can restore some of the power behind those old myths and they have a great deal of power.” Alexis loves the Purcell. “Everybody will be able to sing Dido’s Lament (When I am Laid in Earth is the formal title of the aria). It’s everybody’s favourite moment in English opera.” As for his own work, which was first performed by the Toronto Masque Theatre, “I like James’ music and I hate what I do. “You still want to touch it and fix it. You think you could have done that differently.

The hardest thing to accept is that it is not yours anymore.” Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell Aeneas and Dido by James Rolfe, libretto Andre Alexis When: Monday July 27 at 7 p.m. Where: Dominion-Chalmers United Church

Question: Who wrote the opera "Dido and Aeneas" ?
Answer: PURCELL