Purcell: Dido and Aeneas / Joyce DiDonato / Fatma Said / Andrew Staples
Il Pomo d’Oro / Maxim Emelyanychev
A legendary opera with a legendary line-up
Henry Purcell’s »Dido and Aeneas« is incredibly popular, and that not only among die-hard Baroque fans. With a star line-up including Joyce DiDonato, Andrew Staples and Fatma Said accompanied by the award-winning Italian Baroque orchestra Il Pomo d’Oro, we have all the ingredients for a magical and memorable evening.
In this compact, one-hour opera, Purcell narrates a tragic – and classically operatic – love story, breaking a number of the musical conventions of his time in the process. This pioneering quality is one of the reasons Purcell’s only opera has remained popular to this day.
Before the interval, there is an opportunity to hear Giacomo Carissimi’s »Historia di Jephte«. Carissimi took the harrowing Biblical story of Jephthah, who sacrifices his own daughter out of faithfulness to God, and turned it into music full of intense Baroque emotions.
Performers
Il Pomo d’Oro
Joyce DiDonato Dido
Andrew Staples Aeneas, Jephte
Fatma Said Belinda
Beth Taylor Sorceress
Hugh Cutting Spirit
Carlotta Colombo Filia, Second Woman
Massimo Altieri Sailor
Alena Dantcheva First Enchantress
Anna Piroli Second Enchantress
Maxim Emelyanychev harpsichord and director
Programme
Giacomo Carissimi
Historia di Jephte / oratorio
– Interval –
Henry Purcell
Dido and Aeneas / opera in three acts, Z 626
Concert performance in English
Subscription
Das Alte Werk
Series
Opera in Concert