Purcell: Dido & Æneas, Circe

Featuring

Jonas Descotte
Camille Allérat
Renato Dolcini
Julie Roset
Anthea Pichanick
Ana Vieira Leite

Léo Fernique
Pierre Arpin
Augustin Laudet
Les Argonautes
Henry Purcell

Did you know?

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Interpretation

This recording of Dido and Aeneas uses a 'one-voice-per-part' approach, which is suited to the work's intimate chamber opera scale and allows for detailed musical shaping.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Nahum Tate, the librettist for Dido and Aeneas, transformed Virgil's Aeneid episode, which takes place over several months, into a classical framework of twenty-four hours.

Composition History

Purcell's opera Dido and Aeneas was first performed at Mr. Josias Priest's Boarding-School at Chelsey by young gentlewomen.

Recording & Production

The album includes incidental music from Purcell's Circe, which was originally composed by John Banister in 1677, with Purcell reworking some parts for a later performance.

Compositional Technique

Dido's first aria and her famous final lament are set to ground basses, a repeated bass line over which the melody flows freely.

Historical Context

Opera was slow to take hold in England due to wars during the period of operatic development in Italy and the English preference for spoken entertainment.