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