Word: dido
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...PURCELL: DIDO & AENEAS (Angel). If the English had not loved spoken drama so well, Henry Purcell might have started a glorious operatic tradition in his country. As it was, Dido and Aeneas is Purcell's only opera, which he composed for a 1689 performance by the "Young Gentlewomen" at Josias Priest's School in Chelsea. This album boasts a more distinguished roster of singers, including Victoria de los Angeles, but Purcell's baroque is as airy and clear as a birdsong in an English meadow-and sounds just as repetitious. Sir John Barbirolli conducts with vivacity...
...Aeneid, Book II, in which Aeneas recounts to Dido how the Greeks sacked Troy...
Sorcery abounds in the plot of Dido and Aeneas. But the real sorcerers in the current production of the Purcell opera are the music and stage directors, Brian Davenpor and Dennis Feldman, who have convincingly brought the opera alive using the most austere resources. The set contains nothing but backdrops, two sets of somewhat bleacher-like steps for the chorus, and three marvelous pillars that, when necessary, rotate to become trees. Shadows from the chandelier give depth and subtlety to this classically simple (though simply unclassical) design. The costumes possess the same flexibility through simplicity. This was especially valuable...
...Dido and Aeneas does not have any spoken dialogue, and about half of the music is allotted to the chorus. The rest is a mixture of recitatives and ensemble music, with a few arias. The quality of the principals was less consistent than that of the chorus. Ruth Vebelhoer, the sorceress, has a powerful and attractive voice, and she used both her voice and beautiful gestures well in communicating the sorceress' ghastliness. Of the two witches, Phyllis Wilner had the better disciplined voice; both she and Gareth Wellington sang sensitively, especially in their duet early in the second...
...Coop scarf around his neck. A baritone singing a tenor role, he sang most of his part with an annoying wobble, and sounded strained on the high notes. But he, almost alone among the principals, made his words clear, and he played his role vigorously. Janina Mukerji sang Dido with perfect control and intonation. Both her voice and acting were warm, and her sorrow and anger at Aeneas' fickleness were the most powerfully conveyed emotions of the performance...