Project Description
Dido and Æneas
Henry Purcell, libretto by Nahum Tate
Texts excerpted from Shakespeare’s Macbeth, The Tempest, and Richard III, Virgil’s Æneid and Scarron’s Le Virgile Travesti.
Musical direction and arrangements, Louis-Noël Bestion de Camboulas / Stage direction, set design and costumes, Pierre Lebon / Choregraphy, Iris Florentiny / Light creation, Bertrand Killy / General direction, Juliette Guignard
Blandine de Sansal*, Dido / Grace Durham*, Æneas / Clara Penalva*, Belinda, The Spirit / Louise Bourgeat*, 2nd Woman, 1st Witch / Eugénie Lefebvre*, The Sorceress / Juliette Gauthier*, 2nd Witch, sailor / Pierre Lebon, actor and dancer/ Iris Florentiny, dancer / Aurélien Bednarek, dancer
*Winners of the 28th Clermont-Ferrand International Singing Competition
Anaëlle Blanc-Verdin et Gabriel Grosbard, violins / Charlotte Gerbiz, viola / Matthieu Bertaud, flutes and oboe / Xavier Miquel, oboe and flutes / Lucile Tessier, bassoon and flutes / Juliette Guignard, viola da gamba / Damien Pouvreau, theorbo and guitar / Louis-Noël Bestion de Camboulas, harpsichord
Bertrand Killy, general management / Arthur Tourene, stage management
We wanted to give this Dido and Aeneas a particular direction by choosing an exclusively female vocal cast. This is a nod to the origins of this work, which was performed in Purcell’s day at a girls’ school. This choice was also motivated by the vocal and theatrical excellence of the candidates who took part in the Clermont competition.
Dido and Aeneas was staged in the style of English “masques,” performances combining music, theater, dance, and mechanical effects that were all the rage with London audiences in the second half of the XVIIth century. Henry Purcell’s music will be accompanied by spoken texts taken from Virgil’s Aeneid and Shakespeare’s Richard III, Macbeth, and The Tempest. The latter is a master of fantastical plots, using language as the gods play with the fate of men. A prologue and interludes are thus recreated in the form of scenes with spoken texts, arias, choruses, and dances, blending the arts into a total spectacle. All the artists on stage, in a true spirit of ensemble, participate in the same gesture, taking turns as singer-actor, ensemble singer, actor, and dancer. The sea is the main character, within which human emotions struggle grotesquely and magnificently. It is at once the music, the movement, and the setting.
Set and costumes construction : Opéra de Limoges
Co-producers : Clermont-Auvergne Opéra, Fondation Royaumont, Opéra de Limoges, Atelier Lyrique de Tourcoing, Office Artistique de la Région Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Fondation Orange, Adami, CNM and Spedidam