Track Listing

1. Ov - OAE/Rene Jacobs
2. Act I: Shake The Cloud - Rosemary Joshua
3. Act I: Ah! Belinda, I Am Prest - Lynne Dawson
4. Act I: Grief Increase By Concealing - Rosemary Joshua
5. Act I: When Monarchs Unite - Clare College Chapel Chor/Timothy Brown
6. Act I: Whence Could So Much Virtue Spring? - Lynne Dawson
7. Act I: Fear No Danger To Ensue - Rosemary Joshua/Maria Cristina Kiehr
8. Act I: See, Your Royal Guest Appears - Rosemary Joshua
9. Act I: Cupid Only Throws The Dart - Clare College Chapel Chor/Timothy Brown
10. Act I: If Not For Mine - Gerald Finley
11. Act I: Pursue Thy Conquest - Rosemary Joshua
12. Act I: To The Hills And The Vales - Clare College Chapel Chor/Timothy Brown
13. Act I: The Triumphing Dance - OAE/Rene Jacobs
14. Act II: Prld For The Witches - OAE/Rene Jacobs
15. Act II: Harm's Our Delight - Clare College Chapel Chor/Timothy Brown
16. Act II: The Queen Of Carthage - Susan Bickley
17. Act II: Ho Ho Ho, Ho Ho Ho! - Clare College Chapel Chor/Timothy Brown
18. Act II: But Ere We This Perform - Dominque Visse/Stephen Wallace
19. Act II: In Our Deep Vaulted Cell - Clare College Chapel Chor/Timothy Brown
20. Act II: Echo Dance Of Furies - OAE/Rene Jacobs
21. Act II: Ritornelle - OAE/Rene Jacobs
22. Act II: Thanks To These Lonesome Vales - Rosemary Joshua
23. Act II: Oft She Visits This Lov'd Mountain - Maria Cristina Kiehr
24. Act II: Behold, Upon My Bending Spear - Gerald Finley
25. Act II: Haste, Haste To Town - Rosemary Joshua
26. Act II: Stay, Prince And Hear Great Jove's Command - Robin Blaze
27. Act II: Then Since Our Charmes Have Sped - Clare College Chapel Chor/Timothy Brown
28. Act II: The Grove's Dance - OAE/Rene Jacobs
29. Act III: Prld - OAE/Rene Jacobs
30. Act III: Come Away Fellow Sailors - Clare College Chapel Chor/Timothy Brown
31. Act III: See The Flags And Streamers Curling - Susan Bickley
32. Act III: Our Next Motion - Susan Bickley
33. Act III: Destruction's Our Delight - Clare College Chapel Chor/Timothy Brown
34. Act III: The Witches' Dance - OAE/Rene Jacobs
35. Act III: Your Counsel All Is Urged In Vain - Lynne Dawson
36. Act III: Great Minds Against Themselves Conspire - Clare College Chapel Chor/Timothy Brown
37. Act III: Thy Hand, Belinda - Lynne Dawson
38. Act III: When I Am Laid In Earth - Lynne Dawson
39. Act III: With Dropping Wings Ye Cupids Come - Clare College Chapel Chor/Timothy Brown

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #37602 in Music
• Released on: 2001-02-12
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 59 minutes

BBC Music Magazine
With a cast of singers such as the one chosen by Rene Jacobs for his new recording of Purcell's opera Dido and Aeneas it would be hard to imagine anything short of a triumph. Nor, in the event, was I disappointed, though opinions will surely differ over the solution offered by Jacobs for the end of Act II. It has long been thought that music for a concluding scene of the act has been lost. Jacobs has adapted music from Purcell's semi-opera The Fairy Queen to fit the surviving text for 'The Sorceress and her Enchantresses' and borrowed its Act III tune to provide the concluding Grove's Dance indicated in the libretto.

Jacobs paces the drama effectively, seldom underplaying the wide range of emotions contained in the music. Gerald Finley's Aeneas is nobly declaimed, so much so that we can almost feel sympathy for his predicament as he concedes to Jupiter's command at the end of Act II. Susan Bickley's Sorceress, though well characterised, is less menacing than some of her rivals on disc - I'm thinking of Monica Sinclair in the Anthony Lewis recording (Decca) - but Dominique Visse and Stephen Wallace as the First and Second Witches are horridly fiendish. The two leading roles, Dido sung by Lynne Dawson and her lady-in-waiting Belinda by Rosemary Joshua, are rewarding. Dawson, on her strongest form, has as perfect a voice for the role as any I can think of, delivering a beautifully sustained monologue - not quite enough anger, perhaps - and a deeply felt concluding lament, in which she is sensitively supported by the strings of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Restrained, clear-textured singing by the Choir of Clare College Chapel, Cambridge, sets the seal on a fine performance. Andrew Parrott (Chandos), William Christie (Erato), Anthony Lewis (Decca) and Geraint Jones (EMI) are among those versions which, in a diversity of respects, offer interesting and mainly satisfying alternatives, but the newcomer has fewer weak moments than any of them.

Performance *****
Sound *****

© BBC Music Magazine 2001

Customer Reviews

Promising performance marred by histrionics
Almost every recorded performance of Purcell's opera has yielded to the temptation to add colour to the witches' scenes by means of exaggerated cackles and squawks. If you think that that is the correct way to approach the piece, you may enjoy this recording (although it still has one major drawback - keep reading). Certainly, Dominique Visse goes over the top with more abandon than any of his rivals. Nevertheless, this way of performing Purcell's music renders his music more or less irrelevant for a large proportion of the total work, even though that very music, in fact, contains all of the malevolence and mischief required, as Purcell wrote it. The good points of this recording are a strong cast, an expert orchestra and pin-sharp recording. If Rene Jacobs deserves censure for his handling of the witches' scenes (and he does), he should receive corresponding praise for his solution to the ending of Act Two. This usually terminates very abruptly, because the music written for the ending is lost. Mr. Jacobs has selected pieces from The Fairy Queen to provide musical balance. While they are inevitably inauthentic, they are no more so than leaving a jarring gap, and they are undoubtedly well chosen. Unfortunately, after this success, the opening of Act Three is the real disappointment of this recording. After more cackling from the witches, the chorus, "Destruction's our delight", and the "Witches' Dance", immediately following, never achieve a constant tempo, but are dragged about in all directions. Actually performing a dance against such a ceaselessly varying tempo would be completely impossible. Confronted with the sublime music with which Purcell concluded his opera, few conductors dare to do other than play it completely straight; Mr. Jacobs is no exception. Lynne Dawson sings Dido's final recitative and the famous Lament very beautifully. Overall, this recording can be recommended only in parts. At its best, it is the equal of any performance on record, but its faults are as substantial as its merits.