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Logo Concertgebouw Brugge
Logo Concertgebouw Brugge

Early Opera Company

Purcell. Dido and Aeneas

this event is part of

TOPSTUK PURCELL 2022

music
timeless
Sat 01 Oct 2022 -20.00
Last tickets
Concertzaal
introduction by Ignace Bossuyt 19.15
start 20.00
expected end time 22.20
with break

Standard €26.00 - €50.00

Reduction -26 €13.50 - €25.50

Actie 7x7 (-26 j) €7.00

All prices include booking fees.

Part of Abo Topstuk 22-23

Heart to heart in an epic of ill-fated love

Heroic prince meets proud queen, the Gods interfere and tragedy ensues – that is the basic premise of Virgil’s version of Dido and Aeneas. In Nahum Tate's libretto, which Purcell set to music in the 1680s, things are somewhat different. In that Dido and Aeneas, a sinister Sorceress lends the fates a helping hand. Spirits easily deceive the Trojan prince Aeneas into abandoning Carthaginian queen Dido and going to Italy, where his descendants found Rome, and Queen Dido herself seems afraid of embracing happiness. All of this tragedy and tension inspired Purcell to compose music so superlative that shortly after his death it became emblematic of British culture. The lament When I am Laid in Earth has even become a modern cult classic.
The Early Opera Company and an array of top soloists combine Purcell's masterpiece with Charpentier's one-act opera Actéon. This tragic pastoral tells the same story as that recounted in the Dido and Aeneas aria ‘Oft she visits this lone mountain’. It is based on an episode from Ovid's Metamorphoses.

programme

Henry Purcell (1659-1695)
Dido and Aeneas, Z626

Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643-1704)
Actéon, H481

performers

Early Opera Company: orchestra
Christian Curnyn: conductor
Dame Sarah Connolly: mezzo-soprano, Dido
Edward Grint: bass-baritone, Aeneas / Chasseur
Hilary Summers: alto, Sorceress / Junon
Sam Boden: tenor, Sailor, Spirit / Actéon, Chasseur
Rowan Pierce: soprano, Belinda, 1st Witch / Diane, Daphné
Miriam Allan: soprano, 2nd Woman, 2nd Witch / Arthebuze, Hyale

read less

Early Opera Company: orchestra
Christian Curnyn: conductor
Dame Sarah Connolly: mezzo-soprano, Dido
Edward Gri

Sat 01 Oct 2022 -20.00
Last tickets
Concertzaal
introduction by Ignace Bossuyt 19.15
start 20.00
expected end time 22.20
with break

Standard €26.00 - €50.00

Reduction -26 €13.50 - €25.50

Actie 7x7 (-26 j) €7.00

All prices include booking fees.

Part of Abo Topstuk 22-23