Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell

Dido and Aeneas

Opera by Henry Purcell

Libretto by Nahum Tate based on Virgil’s Aeneid
First performed in 1689 in Chelsea
Last time at the Grand Théâtre de Genève 2001-2002

Revival of the production streamed in 2020-2021
In coproduction with the Opéra de Lille and the Théâtres de la ville de Luxembourg

Sung in English with French and English surtitles
Duration: approx. 1h50 without intermission*

Cast

Musical Director Emmanuelle Haïm & Atsushi Sakai
Stage Director and choreographer Franck Chartier (Peeping Tom)
Composition and direction of additional music Atsushi Sakai
Scenographer Justine Bougerol
Costumes designer Anne-Catherine Kunz
Lighting Designer Giacomo Gorini
Dramaturgy Clara Pons
Artistic collaborator Eurudike De Beul
Choir director Mark Biggins

Dido / Sorceress / Spirit Marie-Claude Chappuis
Aeneas / A sailor Jarrett Ott
Belinda / Second witch Francesca Aspromonte
First witch / Second woman Yuliia Zasimova

Performance by the artists of Peeping Tom

Grand Théâtre de Genève Chorus
Orchestre du Concert d’Astrée

« Glam Night » : 22 February 2025

About

Dido and Aeneas received its premiere in a boarding school for young gentlewomen, performed by young girls (or at least some of the girls, and part of the work). Is this why Aeneas, although featuring in the work’s title, only appears relatively late and then sings very little, before disappearing and leaving the women once more to their solitude and sorrow? For from the beginning, Dido’s melancholy contains inexhaustible depths, and as we dive into Dido’s psychological abyss, we know that it will all end badly.

Known for having rewritten King Lear with a happy ending, the poet Nahum Tate also took a few liberties with Virgil’s Aeneid. In his libretto, Dido, the widowed queen of Carthage, receives the Trojan prince Aeneas, en route for Italy where he is to found a new Troy. Despite her misgivings, Dido gives in to Aeneas’ amorous advances. While the royal couple is hunting, a storm erupts. A witch disguised as Mercury tells Aeneas that he must abandon Dido and leave for Italy. Aeneas leaves Dido, who kills herself in front of her servant Belinda. Grieving cupids mourn her loss.

This production, broadcast from the GTG during the Covid pandemic and crowned best stream of 2021, continues the desire to combine dance with opera which began at the Grand Théâtre with Les Indes galantes, Atys and Idomeneo. Purcell’s original work lasts only a short hour, and the members of the celebrated Belgian company, Peeping Tom, complete it with their usual surrealist fantasy, by way of a parallel story opening the door to numerous crossovers with the original tale. Thus Didi, a fictional Thatcherite power woman on the comeback, mourns her solitude with authoritarian bursts of varying degrees of cruelty. Her cohort of servants evolves according to the moods of their mistress, who, consumed by Bovarysm, demands that Purcell’s work be played to her every day. These hybrid characters populate the royal suite, whose twilight hints at an unreachable exterior. Confinement becomes a reflection of the queen’s psyche, especially since this private palace is overlooked by a Chamber of Parliamentarians, symboling her political obligations and her power.

Emmanuelle Haïm is master of ceremonies at the head of the ensemble with whom she has already travelled the length and breadth of Purcell’s music. Le Concert d’Astrée will lend itself to daring exercises in musical improvisation, evolving from one reality on the stage to another, from purist musical textures to the chromaticisms of the interludes by ensemble cellist and composer Atsushi Sakai, inspired by the famous final aria When I am laid in Earth among others. Assuming the role of this sometimes capricious, sometimes overwhelming Didi, is the magisterial Swiss mezzo Marie-Claude Chappuis. Dido as you have never seen or heard her. At least, unless it was on our screens during the pandemic…