Despite the fair proportion of sheer doggerel in its libretto ("Our next motion/Must be to storm her lover on the ocean"), Henry Purcell's compact and colorful tragedy Dido and Aeneas (1689) became an audience favorite back when Vivaldi was unknown and Bach was a composer trotted out on solemn occasions, like the Soviets did when one of their leaders passed on. The new listener has a vast range of choices as to who will portray the doomed Carthaginian queen, from the Norwegian Wagner powerhouse
Kirsten Flagstad to severe modern authentic-performance specialists. If you're overwhelmed by the selection, this 1967 reading is a great Dido to start with.
Tatiana Troyanos, then a young Greek-American singer, gave strong hints of her tremendous stage presence in the role of Dido. Her initial entrance ("Ah! Belinda, I am press'd") is a superb demonstration of how to seize an audience's attention by slowing down time just a little bit, and her final "When I am laid in earth," if it doesn't have the spiritual-like intensity of
Jessye Norman's version, is a controlled, beautfully planned unfolding of the emotion of tragic resignation. The rest of the cast, composed mostly of English singers, is uniformly good, but perhaps the real star here is conductor
Charles Mackerras, leading the Kammerorchester des Norddeutschen Rundfunks (North German Radio Chamber Orchestra). This is a performance on conventional instruments, but he has a great feel for the kinetic quality of Purcell's music; the performance moves along in such a way as to rope in even the casual listener, and he calls forth some unusual little explosions from the violins that may antagonize purists but certainly add sparkle to the score. The
Monteverdi Choir of Hamburg delivers slightly German-accented readings of such lines as "Fear no danger to ensue," but no real harm is done. The opera is packaged in this two-disc set with a
Mackerras-led performance of Purcell's Ode on St. Cecilia's Day, featuring the
Ambrosian Singers. The remastering job by Dagmar Birwe must be singled out for special mention: this is one of depressingly few reissues available in which top-quality 1960s analog sound comes through on CD with its full precision and range intact. Throw in the budget price, and you've got yourself a great place to begin with the music of Henry Purcell.