Dido and Aeneas Synopsis
Please note: This opera deals with issues of loss and suicide.
Dido is the widowed queen of Carthage. Despite the pleadings of her court, she continues to grieve until she meets Aeneas, who has stopped in Carthage during his travels. Dido initially refuses his advances, but just as she is ready to accept him, he tells her he must leave to continue his journey and fulfill his destiny. After Aeneas’s departure, Dido tells Belinda, that she can no longer continue living. She sings “When I am laid in earth,” also known as “Dido’s Lament,” just before she dies.
More Information about the Opera and Dido’s Lament:
The first documented performance was in 1689 at Josias Priest’s Chelsea school in England; however, there may have been performances prior to this as well. The libretto by Nahum Tate is adapted from Virgil’s Aeneid.
In Dido’s Lament, Purcell uses the repetitions of the chromatically descending ground bass as a musical representation of both Dido’s inner anguish and her resolve. Over this, Purcell constructs Dido’s vocal line, her outward expression. The first half of her lament echoes the sentiment of her earlier air. In the second half, Dido’s pleading command, “remember me” reaches its highest pitch before falling back. One last iteration of the ground bass acts as an elegy for Dido and an introduction to the devastatingly delicate closing chorus.
