September 2010
Beginner
376 pages
12h 7m
English
“Remember me, but ah, forget my fate.” This haunting line from Dido’s lament, “When I Am Laid in Earth,” exemplifies for many listeners the exquisite example of Baroque opera that is Dido and Aeneas, the tragedy in three acts by English composer Henry Purcell that premiered in 1689. Librettist Nahum Tate loosely based the story on Virgil’s Aeneid, a love story involving Dido, Queen of Carthage, and Aeneas, who is shipwrecked at Carthage. When witches remind Aeneas that he is destined to found Rome, he leaves Dido, and the heartbroken Dido kills herself.
“With drooping wings ...
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