Event overview
020 7919 7645
As part of the Music Department's PureGold season, we present fully staged versions Purcell's "Dido and Aeneas" and Puccini's "Suor Angelica" in this opera double bill.
Composed by one of England’s greatest composers, Henry Purcell, with text by Nahum Tate, this update of the epic poem The Aeneid, traces the adventures of a hero, Aeneas, and what happened when he visited North Africa and fell in love with the beautiful Dido, Queen, of Carthage. Interestingly, Purcell and Tate, performed a profound update on this story when they turned it into an opera in 1689. Their version emphasised Dido's point of view rather than Aeneas's. The result is that Vergil's story about civic duty and self-negation turns into a very human story about how it feels to be heartlessly abandoned by one's significant other. The teenage girls who performed Dido and Aeneas in 1689, likely found this updated plot line more relatable - and maybe modern audiences do, too.
Additional text: Emma Riggle
SUOR ANGELICA is a unique one-act opera containing moments of harrowing drama and unequalled redemptive beauty. Beware — it can rip you to shreds.
The story takes place in a convent over one day, intensifying as it unravels. At the opera’s opening, our main character Sister Angelica claims, during a discussion among the nuns, to have no desires, but she lies. She has a hidden, burning desire — to see her illegitimate son that was taken from her seven years ago, and whom she has thought of every day.
So when her unforgiving aunt, the Princess, pays a visit to the convent and is forced to tell Angelica that her son tragically died two years previously, she is plunged into suicidal delirium. She hears her son calling to her — she must go to meet him… but in taking her own life, she is committing a sin. Will she be redeemed, re-united, and finally accepted for who she is?
Text: Opera North - Opera in a Nutshell
Directed by John Wilkie, and conducted by John Andrews and Valeria Racco, our end of year production showcases the talents of vocal students in the department.
Image: Vladimir Frolov
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 8 Jun 2017 | 7:00pm - 9:30pm | |
| 10 Jun 2017 | 7:00pm - 9:30pm |
Accessibility
If you are attending an event and need the College to help with any mobility requirements you may have, please contact the event organiser in advance to ensure we can accommodate your needs.
