“Dido and Aeneas” was programmed to be played this spring in my adored theatre, but this did not happen… So streaming it was. “Dido and Aeneas” is an opera by Henry Purcell with the libretto of Nahum Tate. Dancers also enhance the version presented here from Peeping Tom. The plot comes from Virgil’s Aeneid, with a few liberties, and tells the story of Dido, queen of Carthage, and Aeneas, the hero of the Trojan war… love and despair when Aeneas leaves Dido. But the production of this opera comes with more than that. The dancers move as if they were Dido’s despair, her sadness, her mind. They undulate, squirm, hug. You can feel the pain, the love, the madness of her thoughts. The end is excruciating and powerful. I would have liked to see this for real.
“With drooping wings you Cupids come,
to scatter roses on her tomb.
Soft and gentle as her heart
keep here your watch, and never part.”
Sung in English with French subtitles