Dido and Aeneas (ed. Edward Dent)

libretto by Nahum Tate

music by Henry Purcell

edited by Edward Dent

Considering that Dido and Aeneas is generally acknowledged to be one of the greatest of all operas by a British composer, we know remarkably little about it. We do not know, for example, for whom it was written and when and where it was first performed. It was long thought that the work was written for Josias Priest’s Boarding School for Young Gentlewomen in Chelsea and that the performance given there some time in 1689 was the first. But, since the score calls for a baritone Aeneas and includes parts for tenors and basses in the chorus, it seems scarcely likely that it was intended for a girls’ school. At the same time, the scenic effects required by the libretto clearly indicate that it was meant for the professional stage.

It is now believed that, like John Blow’s Venus and Adonis – on which Dido and Aeneas is closely modelled and which was put on as a private entertainment for Charles II before it was taken up by Priest’s school – it was originally presented at a royal palace and then adapted to suit the voices available to the young gentlewomen in Chelsea. The style of the music suggests, by analogy with other works by Purcell, that it was written round about 1685, a couple of years after Venus and Adonis and about four years before the Chelsea revival.

Another thing we don’t know is exactly what Purcell wrote, since his score has disappeared. We have a copy of Nahum Tate’s libretto printed for the performance in Chelsea in 1689 but the earliest copy of the score, taken from an unknown source, dates from more than 80 years after the composer’s death. That score does not correspond with the libretto in every detail and omits the prologue, the end of the second act and several dances. So every performance must somehow accommodate the gaps or reconstruct the missing music or, as on this occasion, employ both strategies. According to the Dent edition on which this performance is based, the material missing from the second act is not really necessary for musical or dramatic purposes, while the two guitar dances, which would probably have been improvised in Purcell’s day, have been arranged from other music by Purcell.

The fact that the score is incomplete does not seriously diminish the stature of Dido and Aeneas as an opera. It was not the first work of its kind in English but, while it owes much to the pioneering example of Blow’s Venus and Adonis – the construction in three short acts, the active participation of the chorus, the episodes of comic relief – it far surpasses that work in musical interest, above all in its harmonic expression and the melodic beauty of its arias. It is particularly distinguished by the three arias on a ground, a Purcell speciality, one of which occurs in each act, standing as pillars to the construction. The first of them is Dido’s “Ah! Belinda” based on a ten-note theme in C minor which recurs 20 times (including transpositions) in the bass line. The second-act example is the Second Woman’s rather livelier “Oft she visited this loved mountain” in D minor. Most famous of all is Dido’s “When I am laid in earth” on a sorrowfully chromatic ground in G minor. An early anticipation of Isolde’s Liebestod, Dido’s dying lament is one of the greatest of all operatic arias.

Gerald Larner © 2011

Synopsis

Based on Book IV of Virgil’s Aeneid, the opera is set in Carthage in ancient times. The story begins with Queen Dido’s confession of her tormented state of mind. Her confidante, Belinda, understands that the reason for her distress is her love for Aeneas, the Trojan prince who is destined to found the city of Rome but who has been driven off course to Carthage. She and her companions urge Dido to accept his love – which, after a brief exchange with Aeneas and in spite of her misgivings, she does.

Act II begins in the cave of the Sorceress who, for reasons undisclosed in the libretto, hates Dido and is determined to destroy her. She resolves to send a spirit disguised as Mercury, Jupiter’s messenger, to admonish Aeneas and urge him to set sail for Italy. Her Witches undertake to conjure up a storm which will break up Dido’s hunting party. The second scene is set at the hunt. The “rich sport”, worthy of Diana herself, is indeed interrupted by a storm which sends everyone except Aeneas back to town for shelter. Left alone, he is confronted by the false Mercury who orders him to leave that very night.

At the start of Act III the sailors are preparing for their departure – to the triumphant delight of the Sorceress and her Witches. Aeneas reluctantly comes to take leave of Dido and, taunted by her for his hypocrisy, offers to defy his destiny and stay. But she is unable to accept him once he has thought of leaving her and dismisses him. As he goes, she concludes that “death, alas, I cannot shun.” Apparently willing herself to die, she delivers her heart-broken farewell and as she is laid to rest the chorus calls on Cupids to “scatter roses on her tomb.”