HENRY PURCELL'S DIDO & AENEAS, WITH SACRED AND SECULAR MUSIC BY PURCELL AND MONTEVERDI (details below)
16 OCTOBER 2021 : 19:30 T0 21:30
The second half will consist of a complete concert performance of Dido and Aeneas, with soloists drawn from within the choir. Dido is a work which is at once immensely fun and eventually tragic, culminating in Dido's famous lament. It tells the story of the star-crossed lovers Dido, Queen of Carthage, and Aeneas, Trojan prince and hero, as originally narrated in Book IV of Virgil's Aenied (though with a number of alterations).
In the first half of the concert, we will sing sacred works by both composers, including Purcell's 'Hear my prayer' and 'Jehova quam multi sunt hostes mei', and Monteverdi's 'Cantate Domino' and 'Beatus vir'. These anthems contain a huge variety of styles, demonstrating the versatility of both composers in adapting to different contexts. The centrepiece of the first half will be Monteverdi's 'Lamento d'Arianna', a madrigal based on an aria from his lost opera L'Arianna. It will make an interesting comparison with the more famous lament from Dido, both sung by women from classical mythology preparing to commit suicide having
