Although little is known about the origins of Dido and Aeneas, we do know that it was performed in 1689 at an annual concert at the well-known Josias Priest's boarding-school for Young Gentlewomen in Chelsea. Despite convincing evidence that the work was conceived for such a performance, some scholars believe that it was in fact first performed at Court some years earlier and that a performance in 1700, when the music was used in revival of Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, more accurately reflected Purcell's original lay-out of voices.

Not all of Purcell's music for Dido and Aeneas is extant and, in particular, problems arise from the lack of music to end the second act. The libretto calls for a final chorus and dance and something is certainly needed to round off the act and bring the music back to the home key of D. Rather than adapt music from another of Purcell's works, we have chosen the simple but effective device of repeating in instrumental form the chorus from the beginning of the same scene.

Nahum Tate, later poet laureate in succession to Shadwell, provided the text for Purcell's opera, basing it on Book IV of Virgil's Aeneid, which deals with the arrival of Aeneas in Carthage, ship-wrecked on his way from Troy, destroyed by the Greeks, to the West, where he is destined to found a new Troy, Rome. Virgil's epic is itself a political allegory, providing Rome with its own Homeric epic and Augustus, the first of the emperors, with appropriate lineage, while explaining the enmity between Rome and Carthage that had led to the complete destruction of the latter. Aeneas, in Virgil's poem, falls in love with Dido, Queen of Carthage, herself a refugee from Phoenicia. He is urged by the gods, however, to fulfil his divine mission and voyage to Italy, leaving Dido to kill herself on her own funeral pyre, the smoke of which he sees as he sails away.

Tate's version of the story adds a contemporary dramatic and choreographic touch in the introduction of a Sorceress and her companions, the equivalent of Shakespeare's Hecate and her beldams in Macbeth and a number of other stage witches of similar propensities. Now, the love of Dido and Aeneas and the tragedy caused by Aeneas's departure are provoked by sorcery. It is this that produces the storm, a purely natural event in Virgil, as in the opera of Berlioz, from which the couple shelter in a cave. Sorcery, in Nahum Tate's version, seems designed simply to "mar their hunting sport", leaving the participants to hurry back to town in relative decorum, but providing an opportunity for a "trusty elf' to impersonate the god Mercury and urge Aeneas to fulfill his fated mission. For the Sorceress and her witches, harm and destruction is their delight.

Synopsis

The opera opens with an overture in French style, a slow dotted rhythm introduction followed by a quicker fugal section, for four-part string orchestra with continuo.

Act I

The act opens in the palace of Dido, urged to banish sorrow by her sister Belinda and her women. Dido, however, is sad, a stranger now to peace. The music unwinds over a repeated ground bass. A brief ritornello follows.

Belinda tries to persuade Dido to reveal her feelings. The courtiers add their exhortation to Dido to marry Aeneas and find strength in their union. Dido sings of her admiration for brave Aeneas and her pity for his distress. Belinda and one of the women of the court, supported by other courtiers, assure Dido that Aeneas loves her. Aeneas now approaches, with his followers, resolved to defy Fate and stay with Dido. The chorus sings of the power of Cupid.

Aeneas seeks Dido's pity and Belinda urges Cupid to make assurance yet surer. A Dance Guitars Chacony, an improvised chaconne, a set of variations over a simple traditional harmonic pattern, follows, as suggested in the libretto. The chorus urges that love's triumphs be bruited abroad. The act ends with a Triumphing Dance.

Act II

Scene I

Thunder is heard. The scene is the witches' cave. During the opening prelude the Sorceress enters, summoning the witches at her call. The witches now proclaim their purpose, to cause harm. The Sorceress reminds them of their hatred for the Queen of Carthage. The witches now join, in initial canon, in a chorus of delight in the harm they intend to cause. They plan to bring ruin on Dido and the Sorceress explains how this can be done by sending a spirit in the form of Mercury to urge Aeneas to leave. The witches resume their song of delight. There is a dance. Two of the witches now plan to raise a storm, to break up the planned hunting party and isolate Aeneas from the others. The witches, in their cavern, sing of the evil they intend, the walls of the cave casting back an echo as they sing. The scene ends with an Echo Dance of the Furies, described in the libretto as an Echo Dance. Inchanteresses and Fairees, with instrumental phrases echoed in the cavern.

Scene II

A ritornello introduces the second scene, set in a grove. Dido, Belinda, Aeneas and their followers join Belinda in praising the place and the sport. There is an improvised guitar dance on a ground and one of the courtiers sings of Diana, the huntress, chaste and fair, seen by Actaeon as she bathed, and of his death, killed by his own hounds. There is a dance to entertain Aeneas and his followers. Aeneas has succeeded in the hunt, and carries on his spear the head of a boar he has killed. Dido, however, hears the sound of thunder and bids the company hurry back to town. The chorus takes up the suggestion with greater energy. Aeneas, however, is detained by a spirit, a creature of the witches, in the guise of Mercury. The spirit warns Aeneas that he must go, to the latter's dismay, for how can he now leave her, after one night together. The scene and act end with a ritornello derived from the chorus at the start of the scene.

Act III

Scene I

The scene is now by the Trojan ships, where a sailor exhorts his fellows to come away. The sailors dance. The Sorceress and her witches are delighted at the success of their plan, as the ships prepare to sail. Aeneas will meet a storm at sea, the Sorceress announces, Dido will die that night and the next day Carthage will burn.

The witches echo her pleasure in the evil she has brought about. The witches dance and Jack o'Lantern, Jack of the Lanthorn, leads the Spaniards out of their way among the Inchanteresses, as the libretto prescribes, although the Spaniards", a distinct anachronism here, must be presumed a printer's error for "sailors".

Scene II

The scene is now the palace. Dido is in despair and Aeneas comes to make what excuse he can for his departure, hesitating, while Dido urges him to go and he declares his intention of staying, in spite of Jove's command. He leaves.

The chorus sententiously observes that great minds are their own worst enemies. Dido now tells Belinda that death is near. In the final great lament, over a ground bass, Dido sings of her approaching death. A chorus of cupids appears above, with drooping wings, lamenting Dido's death, in music suggested by Blow's chorus of mourning for the death of Adonis.

Writer: Keith Anderson