Dido And Aeneas

HENRY PURCELL'S chamber opera, "Dido and Aeneas," is plentifully represented on disk, but Nicholas McGegan's new recording, with the Philharmonia Baroque and the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge is the freshest and most compelling since Andrew Parrott's magnificent account of 1981 (on Chandos). Mr. McGegan's soloists – Lorraine Hunt as Dido, Lisa Saffer as Belinda and Michael Dean as Aeneas – work wonders with the concise characterizations provided by Purcell and his librettist, Nahum Tate.

At under an hour this mini-masterpiece should be in every opera-lover's collection. There are scores of versions available but I tend to favour those with a Dido of really starry vocal quality given that her torments lie at the heart of the opera and all other considerations are secondary: Purcell and his librettist Nathum Tate make little of Aeneas's psychology and the other roles are all supplementary, reflecting upon Dido's plight, even to the extent of some suggesting that the Sorceress is her alter ego.

A genius with the ability to combine French and Italian influences in an art that transported the English language, Purcell may be William Christie's favourite composer.This production of Dido and Aeneas, directed by Deborah Warner and interpreted by Les Arts Florissants, was overwhelmingly acclaimed when created at the Vienna Festival in 2006 and again when repeated at the Opéra Comique in 2008.This short opera, one of the earrliest, is particularly dear to William Christie who has recorded and directed it on several occasions.

Christopher Hogwood has found himself a dream cast here, with even the smallest roles taken by big names. There are a couple of surprises along the way, such as the underage First Sailor (sung by a slightly quavery treble) and the cross-dressing Sorceress, here taken by a bass. Still David Thomas cackles and machinates with the best of them, so don't let that put you off.

In this first period-instrument recording of Dido, Andrew Parrott tries to re-create the first known performance of the work–at Josiah Priest's School for Young Gentlewomen in London. Here (as there) the cast includes only one male–David Thomas, whose brawny Aeneas could overwhelm Dido physically as well as emotionally. Judith Nelson is a warm, sweet-toned Belinda; the Sorceress gets a vivid, raucous, love-it-or-hate-it performance by the legendary medieval-cum-folk-singer Jantina Noorman. Emma Kirkby, early in her career, sounds eloquent but extremely youthful as Dido–barely past her teens. This makes for a different, perhaps more credible, tragedy: a new, slightly immature queen, servant rather than mistress of her emotions, angrily refuses to take back the lover who abandoned her–only to die heartbroken after banishing him.