To the main content To the footer

Dido and Aeneas

Fri 25 Apr and Tue 29 Apr
25 Apr
and
29 Apr

In partnership with Opera Zuid and Nederlandse Reisopera, Dutch National Opera has developed a new concert experience. Together, the companies will be touring the Netherlands with a Purcell programme centred around the short opera Dido and Aeneas. This music from more than 300 years ago is interpreted by a new generation of opera singers under the leadership of the young Baroque specialist Camille Delaforge.

Henry Purcell’s gripping drama, based on Virgil’s The Aeneid, tells the story of the Trojan hero Aeneas and his love affair, thwarted by witchcraft, with the Carthaginian queen Dido. As the sails of the ship carrying Aeneas away from Carthage disappear as dots over the horizon, we hear Dido’s famous lament. “Remember me, but forget my fate”, she sings while she goes to her death, calling on those around her to remember everything about her except her tragic end.