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, 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. 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.
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.
