Saturday 15 June 2019

7.30pm

(ends 9.30pm approximately)

The Apex, Charter Square, Bury St Edmunds

Purcell               Three Anthems

Purcell               Dido and Aeneas

Clare Presland         Dido

   mezzo-soprano

Tom Asher                Aeneas

   baritone             

Tali Ketzef                 Belinda  

   soprano            

Valerie Reid              Sorceress 

   mezzo-soprano 

Bronwen Stephens  Second Witch / Second Woman

   mezzo-soprano

Austin Gunn             Sailor

   tenor                 

Charlotte Leeder      Spirit

   soprano

Suffolk Baroque Players

Bury Bach Choir

Philip Reed conductor

Bury Bach Choir are delighted to bring a concert performance of Purcell’s only opera, Dido and Aeneas, to Bury St Edmunds.  This enchanting work, which has touched the hearts of generations of listeners, recounts the love of Dido, Queen of Carthage, for the Trojan hero Aeneas, and her despair when he abandons her. 

Probably inspired by an earlier opera by his contemporary John Blow, Purcell set his opera in three acts, for full chorus accompanied by four part strings and continuo.  First performed between 1683 and 1689, the opera includes the famous “Dido’s Lament”, an aria of melancholic beauty, perhaps unsurpassed in all opera, which will be performed this evening by the award winning, Suffolk-born opera star Clare Presland.  The opera embodies love, romance, betrayal and tragedy in equal measure.

To set the scene for this evening of seventeenth century English music and to reflect the other side of Purcell’s working life, his major contribution to English sacred music, the concert opens with three anthems by Purcell, including "I was glad when they said unto me".  The Suffolk Baroque Players follow this with an orchestral suite from Handel's Water Music. 

Booking opens 10 November 2018

Tickets £25, £20 and £15 (all seats reserved)

Apex booking fee £1 per ticket

Early booking discount £1 off all tickets booked by 30 April 2019