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1 LP -
6.42919 AZ - (p) 1983
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| 1 CD -
8.42919 ZK - (c) 1984 |
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| Henry Purcell
(1659-1695) |
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| Dido and Aeneas - Operra
in 3 acts (Libretto by de Nahum Tate) |
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| Overture |
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2' 53" |
A1... |
Act I
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15' 09" |
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| - Song (Belinda) & Chorus:
"Shake the cloud from off your brow"
<> The Triumphing Dance |
1' 06" |
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...A1 |
| - Song (Dido): "Ah! Belinda" |
4' 08" |
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A2 |
| - Recitative & Song (Belinda
& Dido): "Grief increasing by
concealing" |
0' 32" |
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| - Chorus: "When monarchs unite" |
0' 14" |
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| - Recitative (Dido &
Belinda): "Whence could so much virtue
spring?" |
2' 13" |
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| - Duet (Belinda & Second
Woman) & Chorus: "Fear no danger" |
1' 36" |
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| - Recitative (Belinda, Aeneas
& Dido): "See, your royal guest
appears" |
0' 50" |
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A3 |
| - Chorus: "Cupid only throws the
dart" |
0' 35" |
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| - Recitative (Aeneas): "If not
for mine, for Empire's sake" |
0' 23" |
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| - Song (Belinda): "Pursue thy
conquest, Love" |
0' 51" |
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| - Chorus: "To the hills and the
vales" |
1' 20" |
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| - The Triumphing Dance |
1' 21" |
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A4 |
| Act II |
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16' 33" |
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| - Scene 1 - Recitative
(Sorceress): "Wayward sisters" |
2' 31" |
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A5 |
| - Scene 1 - Chorus: "Harm's our
delight" |
0' 14" |
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| - Scene 1 - Recitative
(Sorceress): "The Queen of Carthage" |
0' 42" |
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| - Scene 1 - Chorus: "Ho ho ho" |
0' 10" |
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| - Scene 1 - Recitative (Witches
& Sorceress): "Ruin'd ere the set of
sun" |
1' 20" |
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| - Scene 1 - Chorus: "Ho ho ho" |
0' 10" |
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| - Scene 1 - Duet (Witches): "But
ere we this perform" |
1' 10" |
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| - Scene 1 - Chorus: "In our deep
vaulted cell" |
1' 07" |
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A6 |
| - Scene 1 - Echo Dance of Furies |
1' 01" |
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| - Scene 2 - Ritornelle |
0' 57" |
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B1 |
| - Scene 2 - Song (Belinda) &
Chorus: "Thanks to these lovesome vales" |
1' 15" |
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| - Scene 2 - Song (Second Woman):
"Oft she visits this loved mountain" |
1' 38" |
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B2 |
| - Scene 2 - Recitative (Aeneas
& Dido): "Behold, upon my bending
spear" |
0' 35" |
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| - Scene 2 - Song (Belinda) &
Chorus: "Haste, haste tp town" |
0' 43" |
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| - Scene 2 - Recitative (Spirit
& Aeneas): "Stay, Prince" |
3' 00" |
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B3 |
| Act III |
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19' 04" |
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| - Scene 1 - Song (Sailor) &
Chorus: "Come away, fellow sailors" |
1' 32" |
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B4 |
| - Scene 1 - The Sailor's Dance |
0' 51" |
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| - Scene 1 - Recitative &
Duet (Sorceress & Witches): "See the
flags and streamers curling" |
1' 06" |
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B5 |
| - Scene 1 - Song (Sorceress):
"Our next motion" |
0' 41" |
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| - Scene 1 - Chorus: "Destruction
our delight" |
0' 34" |
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| - Scene 1 - The Witche's Dance |
1' 13" |
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| - Scene 2 - Recitative (Dido,
Belinda & Aeneas): "Your counsel all
is urg'd in vain" |
4' 52" |
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B6 |
| - Scene 2 - Chorus: "Great minds
against themselves conspire" |
1' 04" |
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| - Scene 2 - Recitative (Dido):
"Thy hand, Belinda" |
4' 24" |
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B7 |
| - Scene 2 - Song (Dido): "When I
am laid in earth" |
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| - Scene 2 - Chorus: "With
drooping wings ye Cupids come" |
2' 47" |
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B8 |
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| Ann
Murray, Dido, oder Elissa,
Königin von Kurthago |
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| Rachel
Yakar, Belinda, ihre
Schwester |
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| Anton
Scharinger, Äneas, ein
trojanischer Prinz |
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| Elisabeth
von Magnus-Harnoncourt, Zweite
Frau, Erste Hexe |
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| Trudeliese
Schmidt, Zauberin |
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| Helrun
Gardow, Zweite Hexe |
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| Paul
Esswood, Gespenst |
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| Josef
Köstlinger, Seemann |
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| Arnold-Schönberg-Chor
/ Erwin G. Ortner, Chorleitung |
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CONCENTUS
MUSICUS WIEN (mit Originalinstrumenten)
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| Nikolaus
Harnoncourt, Leitung |
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Luogo
e data di registrazione
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| Casino Zögernitz,
Vienna (Austria) - marzo 1983 |
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Registrazione
live / studio
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| studio |
Producer
/ Engineer
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-
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Prima Edizione CD
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Teldec
"Das Alte Werk" - 8.42919 ZK - (1 cd) -
54' 32" - (c) 1984 - DDD
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|
Prima
Edizione LP
|
Teldec "Das Alte
Werk" - 6.42919 AZ - (1
lp) - 54'
32"
- (p) 1983
- Digital
|
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Notes
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Long before
1724, when Pietro Metastasio
produced “Didone abbandonata”, his first
independent opera text which was to be
setto music on several occasions,
Henry Purcell’s “Dido
and Aeneas” had been performed in a
boarding school for “young
gcntlewomen” in Chelsea in December (?)
l689. Josias Priests, the Head
of the stablishment,was
also a dancing
master at the Dorset Garden Theatre in
London, where he had
evidently got to know Purcell who, not
least for the benefit of Priest,
included a number of dances
in his opera; dancing
was at that time an essential element
in educatlon.
At the first
performance of "Dido
and Aeneas" Purcell
himself played the harpslchord. The
pupils performed on stage, though the
part of Aeneas, which was written
in the tenor clef, may
have been sungby a member of the
teaching staff or
of the Chapel Royal.
In Book 4 of the “Aeneid" Virgil
describes how Aeneas, having been
driven out of burning Troy,
reaches the court of the Carthaginian
Queen Dido. After a
brief amorous interlude, however, he
obeys the command of the gods to weigh
anchor once more. In the struggle
between love and
duty, (Roman) self-sacrifice
triumphs in Virgil's epic.
While Aeneua, putting aside his
personal happines, bows to the divine
will. the unhappy Queen commits
suicide.
In Nahum Tate's libretto
il is not really Jove
at all who reminds
Aeneas of his historic mission. In a
typically English adsptation of the
classical plot
witches, in whose actual existence
many people may well still have
believed, cause the destructtion
of the
bonds of love that join
Dido and Aeneas. The
Spirit of a Sorceress, disguised as
the god Mercury, charges the hero to
leave Carthage and to set out on the
conquest of Italy. Incidentally,
in comparison with the female title
role the character of Aeneas remains
rather colourless and sketchily drawn.
All the additional background of
Virgil's epic is cut
out. At Dido'ss
side stands Belinda,
the typical "confidante”,
well-known in Venetian Opera, a
noblewoman in the retinue of the
Queen.
Henry Purcell’s “Dido
and Aeneas" is a work cast all in one
piece. And yet the
stimuli which are taken up in it and
fused into a new whole
are stylistically
quite different. At
the beginning of Act l Belinda sings
the aria "Shake the cloud" ln a
Venetian da carlo form which still
sounds embryonic.
Dido’s moving aria "When I am laid in
earth” over an ostinato descending
chromatically through a fourth is in
the tradition of the “Lamento
Aria" which was then
fashionable not only
in Italian opera.
The Echo Chorus of the witches (“In
our deep vaulted cell”) owes a
debt to Lullly
(quite apart from the overture, which
is in
the French style, even
though in this case it is only
in two sections). In the
chorus Cupid only throwa
the dart" ans eòsewhere Purcell
employs the English madrigal
style- Several numbers, on
the other hand, bear a resemblance
to English folk song and folk
dance, such as the duet leading up
to the chorus "Dear no danger",
with its syncopation in triple
time, the chorus "To the hills and
the vales", tha sailors' dance in
the third act or the sailors'
chorus "Come away, fellow silors"
with its typical Scotch snap on
the words "no never". Right up to
the moving final "funeral song"
"Whit drooping
wings ye Cupids come" Purcell
allocates an important role to
the Chorus. The arias are
handled with great variety,
while there is nothing yet of
the rigid stereotype in the
often expression-packed
recitatives. The closest approach to Purcell's
score, which has an
unrivalled place in the
history of English opera, is
John Blow's miniature opera
"Venus and Adonis", written
as a Masque for the Court in
1685.
The history
of the performances of the
opera can only be briefly
sketched. It is no longer
possible to
discoverwhether it was
performed more than the
once at Josias Priest's
establishment in
Chelsea. In the years
1700 and 1704 there
certainly were
performances at the
Little Lincoln's Inn
Fields Theatre, where
"Dido and Aeneas" was
inserted as a Masque in
dramatic performances
(for example in
Shakespeare's "Measure
for Measure"). The
revival of the
opera began in 1878
with a concert
performance by the
Gluck Society; in
1895, on the 200th
anniversary of
Purcell's death,
"Dido and Aeneas"
returned to the
London stage for the
first time. Its
almost universal
acceptance did not
occur until 1920's,
when "Dido and
Aeneas" was staged
in Münster
and Stuttgart, in
Vienna, Paris and
New York and other
cities. In these
performances widely
differing
arrangements of
Purcell's
masterpiece were
used. No really
authentic score has
survived. The oldest
extant scores, not
differing greatly
from one another in
details of either
the text or the
music, were not
copied until some
sixty years after
Purcell's death.
Gerhard
Schuhmacher
Translation:
Lindsay Craig
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Nikolaus
Harnoncourt (1929-2016)
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