E1 DIDO AND AENEAS c1685 - Henry Purcell (1659-1695)
a=415
Friday 26 February at 7.30pm in All Saints' Church - TICKETS $40 and $30
OPENING CEREMONY at 7pm with His Worship, the Mayor of Dunedin, Dave Cull, and Jacinda Ardern, MP
PLEASE BE SEATED BY 6.50pm for this Gala Evening!!
THE LITTLE BOX OF OPERAS - musical director David Burchell director Jenny Burchell
Tickets for the Opera are available by going to this website: www.eventfinda.co.nz
JENNY BURCHELL writes:
THE LITTLE BOX OF OPERAS presents a fully-staged production of Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, which was written c1685 for performance at the English court of Charles II, and revived for Josiah Priest's school for girls in 1689. Dido, Queen of Carthage, is profoundly aware of her precarious and isolated position as queen in a conspiracy-and-malice-ridden court; an alliance with the fate-driven Aeneas can only succeed if he is prepared to abandon his own destiny in favour of hers. But Aeneas - strictly a man of action - has little understanding of the true nature of queen-ship, and Dido herself does not see until too late that betrayal comes in many guises. Dido and Aeneas is a passionate and tragic story of love, power, and treachery, driven to inescapable disaster by the Sorceress and her Witches.
Our performances include the reconstructed and rarely performed original Prologue. The dances are fully choreographed, using authentic styles, and the costumes are taken from 1680s designs. Accompaniment is a small ensemble of period instruments. THE LITTLE BOX OF OPERAS performs in the round, bringing the world of opera very close to the audience.