Dido Reconstructed in Music and Vision 17 September

Dido Reconstructed Henry Purcell, arranged by Atilio Cremonesi, reviewed by GIUSEPPE PENNISI On 14 September 2016, a production new for Rome of Henry Purcell'sDido and Aeneas opened the Fall season of the Teatro dell'Opera and provided an anticipation of the Romaeuropa international festival. I was in the audience. It is a non-subscription production of a very successful German staging that has been touring the last fifteen years. Sasha Waltz is the directorand choreographer, with Tanzcompagnie Sasha Waltz and Guests as the main element of the performance. Christopher Moulds conducts the Akademie für Alte Musik and the Vocalconsort, both from Berlin. The stage sets are by Thomas Schenk and Sasha Waltz, the costumes by Christine Birkle, the lighting by Thilo Reuther. The production was premiered at the Staatsoper unter den Linden. A scene from 'Dido and Aeneas' at Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. Photo © 2016 Yasuko Kageyama. Click on the image for higher resolution The opera is performed in the 'musical reconstruction' by Atilio Cremonesi, who interpolates the original score with other music byPurcell. The performance is about two hours without intermission, as compared with seventy minutes for eg Rene Jacobs' recording. Theorchestra, singers (Aurore Ugolin, Reuben Willcox, Deborah York, Céline Ricci, Fabrice Mantegna, Sebastian Lipp and Michael Bennett) andchorus were excellent in the huge 2,000 seat Teatro dell'Opera, resounding to the baroque sonorities of a score that, according to music historians, had only two performances in rather small spaces: a hall inKing Charles II's Royal Palace and at a boarding school for girls. For these reasons, they deserve to be congratulated. Céline Ricci as a lady, Deborah York as Belinda and Aurore Ugolin as Dido in 'Dido and Aeneas' at Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. Photo © 2016 Yasuko Kageyama. Click on the image for higher resolution Reviewing a previous Rome production of Dido and Aeneas (Dramatic Effect, 16 June 2013), I commented that the opera is quintessential British music, written and composed for a young ladies' 'finishing school' and premiered in or around 1689. This short opera (around sixty minutes) has rightly been considered for centuries as the 'masterpiece' of BritishBaroque. The version I heard and saw on 14 September has the flavor of British Baroque but is essentially modern German music and dancetheatre. A scene from 'Dido and Aeneas' at Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. Photo © 2016 Yasuko Kageyama. Click on the image for higher resolution Nonetheless, the performance is enthralling, and this is the reason for its fifteen years of successes around the globe. The Rome audience was simply enthusiastic, even though they saw something quite different from what Purcell intended. Copyright © 17 September 2016 Giuseppe Pennisi, Rome, Italy HENRY PURCELL DIDO AND AENEAS TEATRO DELL'OPERA ROME ITALY ENGLAND  << M&V home       Concert reviews        Pergolesi Spontini Festival >>