Arranged by the PEOPLE'S CONCERT SOCIETY
In co-operation with the B.B.C.
Fifth Concert of Eighth Series
Relayed from the. Battersea. Town Hall
A Performance of the Opera
' DIDO AND AENEAS '
By HENRY PURCELL (IC58-1695)
HERE is a seventeenth-century Opera by our great British composer, who was Organist of the Chapel Royal to Charles II, James II and William and Mary, as well as Organist of Westminster Abbey for fifteen years.
Ti,e chief characters are :—
Dido, also called ELISSA—Queen of Carthage
(Soprano).
BELINDA, her Lady-in-Waiting (Soprano). A SORCERESS (Mezzo-Soprano), and ÆNEAS, a Trojan Prince (Tenor, or High
Baritone).
The plot, very briefly, runs thus :—
ACT I. Æneas, while on a voyage, is driven by a storm on to the coast of Africa. He is welcomed by Dido, who languished for love of him.
ACT II'. A spiteful sorceress, who hates the Queen, plans to send to the Prince a messenger, who shall pretend to come from Jove himself, and shall command Æneas to depart from Carthage at once. The plot is carried put. Æneas is about to set sail.
ACT III. The sorceress sings her triumph.
Dido is broken-hearted at Æneas' desertion, and has caused her funeral pilo to be made. Though he is willing to risk Jove's displeasure by staying, she bitterly rejects his offer, 'declaring that ' No repentance shall reclaim The. injured Dido's slighted flame.'
He goes. and she stabs herself upon the funeral pile, which then consumes her body.