Track Listing

1. Overture
2. Shake The Cloud From Off Your Brow
3. Ah! Belinda. I Am Prest With Torment
4. When Monarchs Unite
5. Whence Could So Much Virtue Spring?
6. Fear No Danger
7. See, See, Your Royal Guest Appears
8. Cupid Only Throws The Dart
9. If Not For Mine
10. Pursue Thy Conquest, Love
11. A Dance Gittars Chacony
12. To The Hills And The Vales
13. The Triumphing Dance
14. Prelude For The Witches - Wayward Sisters
15. Harm's Our Delight
16. The Queen Of Carthage, Whom We Hate
17. In Our Deep Vaulted Cell
18. Echo Dance Of The Furies
19. Ritornelle - Thanks To These Lonesome Vales
20. Glitter Ground - A Dance
21. Oft She Visits - Ritornelle
22. Behold Upon My Bending Spear
23. Haste, Haste To Town
24. Stay, Prince, Stay
25. Ritornelle
26. Prelude - Come Away, Fellow Sailors
27. The Sailors' Dance
28. See The Flags And Streamers Curling
29. Destruction's Our Delight
30. The Witches' Dance
31. Your Councel All Is Urg'd In Vain
32. Great Minds Against Themselves Conspire
33. With Drooping Wings

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5845 in Music
• Released on: 2006-01-23
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording reissued
• Dimensions: .26 pounds
• Running time: 52 minutes

Customer Reviews

A good rendition at a good price
I received this from Amazon UK a week ago and am very pleased with it. It is beautifully recorded and all the solo singers adhere to the pure vibrato-free style of the period. The historical orchestra is well balanced with some delectable archlutes and theorbos to the fore, and the choir is precise with good diction and tuning. A full libretto is enclosed (unusual at mid-price nowadays) with two scholarly essays about the sources used and decisions made in constructing the performance. I didn't find the sound effects as intrusive as my fellow reviewer.

All in all I think Purcell himself would have relished this performance and would recommend it to anyone seeking a first version of the opera.

Too much thunder and lightning
This is certainly a good rendition of Purcell's chamber opera, well sung and performed, although I find the sound effects of thunder and lightning overdone and partly disturbing, especially since they are not in accordance with the otherwise "authentic practice" of this recording. (I am sure there was no prefabricated thunder and lightning at hand in Purcell's time, was it?) Still, there are more interesting versions of "Dido and Aeneas" available. If you are getting your first CD with this opera, try out the legendary 1961 recording with the English Chamber Orchestra, featuring Janet Baker as Dido. It's full of drama, and the sound engineering is excellent. If you prefer a version on period instruments, take a look at William Christie's 1994 recording with Les Arts Florissants. The playing is more transparent than on the Hogwood CD and the sound altogether more brilliant.

Look no further!
With so many versions of Dido and Aeneas available, and no guide for the perplexed to make a decision from amongst such a wide choice being offered to us, what on Earth is one to do? Well your search is over. This is the "if you only get one version, get this" version.

Hogwood seems to have a bit of a Midas touch, combining fabulous performances by Catherine Bott and Emma Kirby at their finest, a great supporting cast and musicians directed with impeccable timing and pace.

Now it's not entirely perfect. In striving for authenticity, trouser and skirt roles are retained - I generally prefer to hear those parts in versions where the sorceress is played by a woman and the sailors by men - plus the sorceress and witches do ham it up a bit. But overall there is no better performance than this.

Full libretto included, and all at a great price.