2019 has been quite a year for Dido. The release of her acclaimed album Still On Mind in March quickly led to her becoming the best selling UK solo female artist of the year, an achievement that came as she embarked on her first tour in 15 years. Dido is set to release a special deluxe edition of Still On My Mindon November 15th (BMG).
The circumstances of the composition of Purcell’s only opera, Dido and Æneas, are unclear. First performed in the 1680s, it received few performances in the composer’s lifetime, before disappearing until its revival at the very end of the nineteenth century. This miniature, poetic, dramatic, delightfully melodic, and containing some unforgettably beautiful vocal pieces (Dido’s “Lament”, the Witches’ songs…) has enjoyed great success ever since.
La Nuova Musica and its artistic director David Bates present Henry Purcell's most widely admired work Dido and Aeneas. With Nathum Tate's libretto based on Virgil's Aeneid Book IV, Dido and Aeneas is a miniature opera, as well as the only all-sung opera Purcell ever composed.