Arbor Opera Theatre, Ann Arbor Cantata Singers collaborate for “Dido and Aeneas”
NOTE: This story has been updated to reflect the fact that People Dancing is not involved in the production.
Purcell’s opera “Dido and Aeneas” is an oldie but goodie, a 1689 Baroque opera on a libretto by Nahum Tate that packs drama, pathos, humor and great music for soloists, chorus and dancers into its 1-hour length.
It is often presented in concert form, but costumes, staging and minimal settings enliven the production when Arbor Opera Theatre, the city’s ambitious professional company, teams up with the excellent Ann Arbor Cantata Singers, dancers and a small chamber orchestra for 2 performances of “Dido” this weekend. The shows take place on Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m., at First United Methodist Church, 120 South State Street.
The opera — the tale of doomed love between Dido, Queen of Carthage, and the hero Aeneas — features Kara Alfano as Dido; Jesse Enderle as Aeneas; Kritin Eder as the Sorceress; and Tanya Roberts as Belinda. Warren Puffer-Jones conducts. AOT Artistic Director Shawn McDonald makes his debut as stage director with the show.
Like everyone familiar with opera, McDonald adores the music. “This piece is really a gem, but a lot of people don’t know the music except for Dido’s “Lament.”
And if truth be told, he admits, auditions this fall for the opera netted enough renditions of that aria to last a long time.
Tickets are available for purchase online at the Arbor Opera web site ($30, prime seating, with libretto; $20 general admission; $15 student/senior) and at the door. More details can be found in the AnnArbor.com event listing for “Dido and Aeneas”.
Susan Isaacs Nisbett is a free-lance writer who covers classical music and dance for AnnArbor.com.
Comments
Jim Toy
Sun, Jan 31, 2010 : 5:18 p.m.
Thanks to all for the so moving production of this masterpiece! The staging, including the miming and dancing, was inventive and restrained, and all the better for the restraint. Economy vs. extravagance of means. Excellent conducting, playing, and singing. The Cantata Singers were cohesive and consistently on pitch. Appropriately virtual absence of vibrato in the chamber orchestra. Kara Alfano (Dido), in addition to her other virtuss, displayed accomplished trills. I rarely hear them now. Lawrence Brownlee produced an excellent one in his recital here last year. All in all, this "Dido and Aeneas" was on a par musically with a production at the Stratford (Ont) Festival years ago, and was more effectively staged.