Organization

Stage director

Igor Yebra

Lighting designer

Sebastián Marrero

Singer

Soprano

Luciana Bueno

Dido

Tenor

Juan Font

Aeneas

Sofía Mara

Belinda

Mezzo-soprano

Second woman

Evgenia Koroleva

Sorceress

Carolina Rotela

First witch

Clementina Moreira

Second witch

Juan Pablo Abreu

First sailor

Conductor

Cristina García Banegas

Chorus master

Teatro Solís

Orchestra

Orquesta Filarmónica de Montevideo

Others

De Profundis Vocal Ensemble

Dido and Aeneas

Montevideo

Uruguay

Teatro Solis

Dido and Aeneas Purcell

Public

Approved

Dido & Eneas will have the musical direction of Cristina García Banegas at the head of the Montevideo Philharmonic Orchestra and the De Profundis Vocal Ensemble. The premiere of Herny Purcell's opera on our main stage will mean the return to Uruguay of the versatile artist Igor Yebra as stage director. Three unique functions.

Luciana Bueno and Juan Font in the roles of Dido & Eneas ; alongside Sofía Mara as Belinda and Evgenia Pirshina as the Sorceress .

The costumes will be in charge of the Spanish Ángel Amor (Maléficent, Cinderella, among others), while the scenery is in the hands of the renowned theatrical designer, Hugo Millán. 


Dido and Aeneas: between mythology and allegorical language

Dido and Aeneas is an opera in three acts, with a libretto by the English playwright and poet Nahum Tate (1652 – 1716), based on Canto IV of Virgil's Aeneid and Tate's own tragedy Brutus of Alba or The Enchanted Lovers. . It was written before 1688, the year in which it was first performed at Josias Priest's School for Girls in London (it was apparently composed for amateur performers), and professionally performed in 1700.

Dido or Elisa of Tire appears in the stories of Greco-Latin Antiquity - among which Virgil's Aeneid stands out - as the founder and first queen of Carthage, who married Aeneas, a Trojan prince who arrived fleeing his city destroyed by the war. The goddesses Venus, mother of Aeneas, and Juno intervene, who agrees with the first the love and marriage of the young people, to prevent Aeneas from returning to Troy. Jupiter sends Mercury to remind the hero of his duty, and Aeneas departs; Dido takes her own life. The theme is representative of mythological plots in which the gods intervene in the affairs of demigods and humans. But beyond the specific issue, there is the issue of destiny and the possibility or impossibility of humans to act according to/against it. Dido's final words sum it up: Remember me,

In the opera, Act I is dedicated to the meeting of the protagonists and the realization of their love. In Act II the sorceress and the witches appear, characters who are not included in the Aeneid. A messenger spirit reminds Aeneas that he must go. In Act III the sorceress and the witches plot Dido's death; despite Aeneas letting her know of his decision not to abandon her, Dido rejects him and poisons herself.

Dido and Aeneas is an allegorical work. Dido represents Britain; Aeneas to King James II, the witches to the Catholic Church. It has also been interpreted that the protagonists allude to the kings María and Guillermo. Let us remember that, according to traditional rhetoric, founded in Greco-Latin antiquity, allegory is defined as a chain of metaphors that give rise to a single extended metaphor. The allegorization procedure can be applied punctually, through the image and/or an oral or written text; a work can constitute, as a whole, an allegory. It is a highly codified language, which allows various levels of reading, ranging from the literal to a complex exegesis. The allegory, especially the visual, was used intensely in the Middle Ages, period in which allegorical thought was central to official and popular culture, widely used by Christianity; also had a wide boom in the baroque and romanticism. Dido and Aeneas, as musical theater, allows you to play with texts and images. 

The music of the opera is testimony to Purcell's ability to bring together the musical languages ​​that had constituted the English tradition with the most advanced French and Italian contributions for the time. The overture follows the French model; the homophonic choirs and dances recall Lully's style. In the development of the three acts appear melodies of English tradition; a bass ostinato is often used in arias. The recitatives show the intention of syncretizing the different European currents, adapted to the characteristics of the English language. Indeed, the successful handling of the link between language and music in recitatives and arias made Purcell a model for twentieth-century English composers such as Britten and Tippett.

English

Dido and Aeneas by Purcell, From (2022/2022), Directed by Igor Yebra,, Conductor Cristina García Banegas, Teatro Solis, Montevideo, Uruguay

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

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Program, About & Synopsis

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