Purcell: Dido and Aeneas; Ode on St. Cecilia's Day (2005)

Despite the fair proportion of sheer doggerel in its libretto ("Our next motion/Must be to storm her lover on the ocean"), Henry Purcell's compact and colorful tragedy Dido and Aeneas (1689) became an audience favorite back when Vivaldi was unknown and Bach was a composer trotted out on solemn occasions, like the Soviets did when one of their leaders passed on. The new listener has a vast range of choices as to who will portray the doomed Carthaginian queen, from the Norwegian Wagner powerhouse Kirsten Flagstad to severe ... Read More

Despite the fair proportion of sheer doggerel in its libretto ("Our next motion/Must be to storm her lover on the ocean"), Henry Purcell's compact and colorful tragedy Dido and Aeneas (1689) became an audience favorite back when Vivaldi was unknown and Bach was a composer trotted out on solemn occasions, like the Soviets did when one of their leaders passed on. The new listener has a vast range of choices as to who will portray the doomed Carthaginian queen, from the Norwegian Wagner powerhouse Kirsten Flagstad to severe modern authentic-performance specialists. If you're overwhelmed by the selection, this 1967 reading is a great Dido to start with. Tatiana Troyanos, then a young Greek-American singer, gave strong hints of her tremendous stage presence in the role of Dido. Her initial entrance ("Ah! Belinda, I am press'd") is a superb demonstration of how to seize an audience's attention by slowing down time just a little bit, and her final "When I am laid in earth," if it doesn't have the... Read Less

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2005, Archiv Produktion UPC: 028947753506 CD See All