Henry Purcell

Dido and Aeneas (Complete Opera in Concert)

Henry Purcell (PER-sul), who has been called "England's finest native composer," was born in 1659 and died in 1695, and in between he established his place among the greatest of Baroque composers by marrying contemporary Continental trends with a distinctly English sensibility. Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas (1689), on a libretto by Nahum Tate (1652–1715) and based on a story from the fourth book of Virgil's Aeneid, was originally written for performance in a girls’ boarding school. It has since become one of the earliest operas still performed on a regular basis.

THE STORY:

Dido, the widowed Queen of Carthage, entertains the Trojan Prince Aeneas who has been shipwrecked on his way to found a new Troy (i.e., Rome) in Italy. Dido and Aeneas fall in love, but a nasty bunch of Witches will have none of it and plot to destroy Dido's happiness. The head Sorceress conjures a storm while the royal couple are out hunting. Amid the confusion as the courtiers scurry back to town, a witch impersonating the god-messenger Mercury orders Aeneas to immediately set sail for Italy. Aeneas reluctantly obeys and abandons Dido. The broken-hearted Dido cannot bear her lover's betrayal and dies from grief. The opera ends as her death is lamented by a chorus of mourning cupids.

--Intermezzo Sunday Concerts, UNF Opera Ensemble, March 4, 2007