Media made in Exeter  Upgrade to paid

ON OUR RADAR

Dido and Aeneas

A performance of Henry Purcell’s only true opera in Exeter’s oldest building.

Leigh Curtis

St Nicholas Priory is hosting a performance of Dido and Aeneas, composer Henry Purcell’s only true opera, on Saturday 18 January.

Composed in the 1690s and based on Book IV of Virgil’s Aeneid, Dido and Aeneas is one of the earliest known English operas.

At the St Nicholas Priory performance Aeneas will be played by Lee Andreae and Dido by Ukrainian mezzo-soprano Iryna Ilnytska.

Supporting roles will be played by Kara Malton, Emily Grossman, Susan Gunn-Johnson, Melanie Mehta and Cressida Whitton with Jane Anderson-Brown as the sorceress, accompanied by John Draisey on piano.

Following the performance the cast will also perform other arias and duets by Henry Purcell.

The Meeting of Dido and Aeneas by Sir Nathaniel Dance-Holland The Meeting of Dido and Aeneas, 1766 by Sir Nathaniel Dance-Holland.
Photo: Tate under Creative Commons licence.

Henry Purcell was a composer of Baroque music whose style was uniquely English while incorporating Italian and French elements.

He was among England’s most important early music composers.

Virgil was an ancient Roman poet who composed some of the most famous Latin poems, including the Aenied.

His work was acclaimed during his lifetime and celebrated throughout late antiquity, the Middle Ages and into early modernity.

He appears as the author’s guide through Hell and Purgatory in Dante’s Divine Comedy.

St Nicholas Priory St Nicholas Priory. Photo: Hugh Llewelyn under Creative Commons license.

Grade I listed St Nicholas Priory was founded in 1087 by William of Normandy.

Following the dissolution of the monasteries its remaining buildings became a prominent Elizabethan town house.

It was subsequently subdivided into several smaller houses and business premises before being restored and becoming a museum in 1916.

Subscribe to The Exeter Digest - Exeter Observer's essential free email newsletter

Your personal information will be processed and stored in accordance with our Privacy Policy

Dido and Aeneas begins at 7pm on Saturday 18 January at St Nicholas Priory. Doors open at 6.30pm.

Tickets cost £15 and are available via the Ticketsource website.

Media made in Exeter

Exeter Observer is produced by a non-profit newsroom with two part-time staff: Leigh Curtis and Martin Redfern.

Since we launched from our kitchen table in April 2019 we have published more than 1,000 news stories, features, investigations, community and culture previews, galleries, newsletters and special reports.

We work half of the week as volunteers and keep overheads low, serving 1.5 million page views a year to 50,000 regular readers on a tiny budget.

If you think what we do is good for our city please upgrade to a paid Exeter Observer subscription from less than £2/week.

135 of the 300 paying subscribers we need to break even have signed up to support the independent journalism our city needs.

We can get there with your support. We hope you'll join us today.

Upgrade to paid

More stories
Proposed revised Mary Arches Bartholomew Street East co-living block elevation

Mary Arches “co-living” developer resists “miniscule” room size criticisms as design revisions prompt further consultation

Changes include increased building footprints and removal of twelve rooms to provide eleven communal kitchens – between residents of 297 studios – while gates obstruct pedestrian thoroughfare and site’s historic setting and significance essentially ignored.

September 2025 permitted replacement scheme west elevation

Council denies data and contrives criteria to dismiss community balance concerns in third King Billy student block approval

Exeter Observer analysis finds more students living in city centre than residents as council bid to include PBSA in housing delivery figures weakens local planning policy – but does not remove it from decision-making altogether.

, updated

Grace Road Fields in March

Botched consultation restarted on sale of 8.5 acres of Riverside Valley Park green space

Council land disposal to include rights to lay underground distribution pipework across River Exe floodplain following “low-to-zero carbon” Grace Road Fields heat plant planning approval in face of Environment Agency sequential test concerns.

Exeter College and Petroc campuses map

Exeter College and Petroc merger set to create largest college group in South West

Colleges hold public consultation on creation of new organisation which they say would educate 16,000 students at Exeter and North Devon campuses and employ 2,000 staff with £100 million turnover.

Proposed Clarendon House student block aerial view

Proposals to replace Clarendon House with 297-bed student accommodation complex submitted for approval

Developer Zinc Real Estate arrives at final proposal for up to ten storey Paris Street roundabout redevelopment after nearly two years of informal public consultations and meetings with city councillors and officers.