Track Listing

1. Overture - English Chamber Orchestra, Thurston Dart, Anthony Lewis, Henry Purcell
2. "Shake the clouds from off your brow" - Patricia Clarke, The St. Anthony Singers, English Chamber Orchestra, Thurston Dart, Anthony Lewis, Henry Purcell
3. "Ah! Belinda, I am prest" - Janet Baker, Patricia Clarke, The St. Anthony Singers, English Chamber Orchestra, Thurston Dart, Anthony Lewis, Henry Purcell
4. "Whence could so much virtue spring?" - Janet Baker, Patricia Clarke, English Chamber Orchestra, Thurston Dart, Anthony Lewis, Henry Purcell
5. "Fear no danger" - Patricia Clarke, Eileen Poulter, The St. Anthony Singers, English Chamber Orchestra, Thurston Dart, Anthony Lewis, Henry Purcell
6. "See, your Royal Guest appears" - Patricia Clarke, Raimund Herincx, Janet Baker, The St. Anthony Singers, English Chamber Orchestra, Thurston Dart, Anthony Lewis, Henry Purcell
7. "Wayward sisters" - Monica Sinclair, Rhianon James, Catherine Wilson, The St. Anthony Singers, English Chamber Orchestra, Thurston Dart, Anthony Lewis, Henry Purcell
8. "Ruin'd ere the set of sun!" - Rhianon James, Catherine Wilson, Monica Sinclair, The St. Anthony Singers, English Chamber Orchestra, Thurston Dart, Anthony Lewis, Henry Purcell
9. Ritornelle - "Thanks to these lonesome vales" - Patricia Clarke, The St. Anthony Singers, English Chamber Orchestra, Thurston Dart, Anthony Lewis, Henry Purcell
10. "Oft she visits" - Eileen Poulter, English Chamber Orchestra, Thurston Dart, Anthony Lewis, Henry Purcell
11. "Behold, upon my bending spear" - Raimund Herincx, Janet Baker, Patricia Clarke, The St. Anthony Singers, English Chamber Orchestra, Thurston Dart, Anthony Lewis, Henry Purcell
12. "Stay, Prince" - "Jove's commands shall be obey'd" - Dorothy Dorow, Raimund Herincx, English Chamber Orchestra, Thurston Dart, Anthony Lewis, Henry Purcell
13. Prelude - "Come away, fellow sailors" - Sailors' dance - John Mitchinson, The St. Anthony Singers, English Chamber Orchestra, Thurston Dart, Anthony Lewis, Henry Purcell
14. "See the flags"-"Destruction's our delight-The Witches' - Monica Sinclair, Rhianon James, Catherine Wilson, The St. Anthony Singers, English Chamber Orchestra, Thurston Dart, Anthony Lewis, Henry Purcell
15. "Your counsel all is urged in vain" - Janet Baker, Patricia Clarke, Raimund Herincx, English Chamber Orchestra, Thurston Dart, Anthony Lewis, Henry Purcell
16. "But Death alas!".."When I am laid in earth" - Janet Baker, The St. Anthony Singers, English Chamber Orchestra, Thurston Dart, Anthony Lewis, Henry Purcell
17. "With drooping wings" - The St. Anthony Singers, English Chamber Orchestra, Thurston Dart, Anthony Lewis, Henry Purcell

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #28851 in Music
• Released on: 2000-02-28
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .19 pounds
• Running time: 53 minutes

Customer Reviews

Sparkling
Dame Janet's portrayal of Dido is historically the most successful, and this is undoubtably the best recording of Purcell's masterpiece. What makes this set so brilliant is Baker's sensitive response to the music, her uncanny ability to seek out the emotional nuances of the score and expose them, raw and shining. This is true vocal acting, and she displays her skill most movingly, possibly one of the most emotive pieces of early English song. She is supported by a strong and talented Belinda and a satisfactory Aeneas. The Sorceress is also an incredible piece of theatre. An all round superior recording to any on the market.

A Stunning Recording
This is a true masterpiece. Of course Janet Baker is legendary as Dido, but everything else about this recording is wonderful too. Of particular interest is the recording quality, which shows what Decca could do back in 1962. Those old Neumann M50 microphones used by engineer Kenneth Wilkinson have arguably never been surpassed, or even equalled -just look at the used prices!

It's great that such a wonderful and historic performance was captured so beautifully.

Purcell's Immortal Opera
Henry Purcell's (1659-1695) opera "Dido and Aeneas" tells, in approximately one hour, of the frustrated passion of Dido, queen of Carthage, for the Trojan hero Aeneas, whose destiny it is to found Rome. The opera is based upon Virgil's Aeneid with a highly compressed libretto by Nahum Tate. Purcell's opera includes three parts for women and only one, Aeneas, for a male. The brief opera is in three Acts. According to "The New Grove Book of Operas", Purcell based his work on an earlier English opera, "Venus and Adonis" by John Blow. With its heavy emphasis on dance and chorus, "Dido and Aeneas" also draws heavily on French baroque opera.

This reissue of a 1961 recording of a young Janet Baker in the role of Dido is an outstanding way to get to know Purcell's only opera. Baker performed "Dido and Aeneas" many times during her career. Her voice is glowing and rich. She sings with force of Dido's initially repressed love and her soon-to-be dashed love. Interestingly, Dame Baker's most famous role was another Dido -- in Berlioz' lengthy opera, "The Trojans". Anthony Lewis conducts the English Chamber Orchestra with a supporting cast of Patricia Clark as Dido's confidante Belinda, Raimund Herincx as Aeneas and Monica Sinclair as a snarling Sorceress. I greatly enjoyed the cello obligato which permeates this opera.

For all its brevity, the opera encompasses a wide variety of emotion and scenes. The opera makes great use of the chorus. In general, after an aria by one of the principals, the chorus comments extensively, much in the manner of a Greek tragedy. Sometimes the chorus repeats the music of the soloist, but at other times it takes themes of its own. In "Dido and Aeneas" the chorus appears in scenes involving the court at Carthage, as huntsmen, witches, and sailors. It also appears at the close of the opera, following the death of Dido, in elegaic music of comfort.

In addition to his use of the chorus, Purcell uses the dance as a key element of his story. In "Dido and Aeneas", there are dance scenes displaying the love of Dido, a dance of the furies, who plot to destroy her happiness, an erotic dance for Aeneas, performed by Dido's entourage, a sailors' hornpipe, and a witches' dance in which the sorceress and her compatriots celebrate their destruction of the couple.

In the concluding scene of the opera, Janet Baker powerfully sings Dido's
sad and stark lament for the loss of Aeneas and for her impending death accompanied to a dirge-like theme in the orchestra. This is music of great tragedy.

This CD includes a complete libretto and good program notes. It is an wonderful way to experience an early operatic masterpiece.

Robin Friedman