Your guide to classical music online

Is This Really Dido & Aeneas?

Robert Levine

Artistic Quality:

Sound Quality:

This performance of Dido and Aeneas was recorded before conductor Teodor Currentzis’ three Mozart/da Ponte operas, but it has just been released in the United States. As we’ve seen from his Mozart, Currentzis thinks he knows better than the composer a good deal of the time, and while his eccentricities and plethora of self-esteem are often irritating, his results are not altogether dismissible. Odd tempo choices, wild commentary from the continuo, and the placing of emphases hither and yon keep the ear both fascinated and irritated in equal proportions.

Here we get an expanded continuo section–theorbo, guitar, lute, viola da gamba, and percussion–which adds an underlying throb and thrum to many numbers, sometimes very effectively, sometimes with a bit too much of a shock. “Fear no danger” is simply wild with continuo and contains a fantastic solo violin riff–it’s exciting, but is it “Dido”? The drums and thunder machine event that acts as a prelude to the Prelude for the Witches works; the laughing choruses are maddeningly accented.

“Destruction’s our delight” is whiplash fast and “In our deep vaulted cell” is so slow that it is eventually laughable. There is a very quiet, slow, unnecessary cello solo before “Your counsel all is urg’d in vain” that made me think the CD had stopped. And the Sorceress’ solo in Act 2, normally a moment for conductor and singer to have a tasty dramatic meal, is oddly unspooky, unless you count the hideous voice of the countertenor who sings the role.

Simone Kermes’ performance of Dido could use a master’s thesis: she and Currentzis are so in tune with one another that it’s frightening. Her first air, “Ah! Belinda”, is taken more slowly and quietly than I’ve ever heard: it’s sung as a dirge. I think it’s a mistake. She sings “When I am laid in earth” the same way; this is a woman who begins in grief and ends in grief, which completely destroys the emotional and dramatic arc of the opera. I’m not claiming that Dido is ever exactly zippy, but to hear every note sung at a ravishing pianissimo, with phrases taken in long, long breaths may be a stunning stunt and can be appreciated as art, but even as the opposite of sound and fury it manages to become nothing.

There are occasional outbursts, and sometimes a word will be emphasized, but the overall effect is of a singer, or the Queen of Carthage, performing in a trance. The many embellishments–at such a slow tempo it is easy to plug in a curlicue or appoggiatura–are interesting, but they do not add to the character either.

And she’s surrounded by like-minded singers. Deborah York is the only native English speaker in the cast, but you’d never guess so from her Belinda–slow and lovely, a long series of vowels, and a weird habit of allowing the final note of a phrase to flatten is very odd. Dimitris Tiliakos, who is either a low tenor or a high baritone, sings Aeneas’ few lines with the right emphasis, but as is usual with this role, he makes little difference. Sailors, witches, etc., are excellent, even if singing in mostly incomprehensible English.

The chorus and orchestra–period instruments of course–are brilliant. Every attack, every quick crescendo or diminuendo, every flourish or eccentricity is presented with the utmost clarity. Arkady Burkhanov offers a gorgeous Chaconne in the scene in the grove.

What can I say? The individual parts fascinate, even when they are specifically perverse. The singing lilts and pleases the ear. The orchestral textures are spotless and transparent. It’s hard not to listen more than once, just for the sheer entertainment value. But when it’s over, you’re not left with a performance of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. It’s a piece of performance art, to be placed in a museum and examined, and to be admired or not admired. And then you go home and listen to either Janet Baker (under Anthony Lewis; Decca) on non-period instruments but in a performance that will move you to tears, or Lynne Dawson (under René Jacobs; HM) and have some idea of what Purcell truly wanted.


Recording Details:

Reference Recording: Janet Baker, Anthony Lewis (Decca); Lynne Dawson, René Jacobs (HM)

    Soloists: Simone Kermes, Deborah York (soprano); Dimitris Tiliakos (baritone); Oleg Ryabets (countertenor); others

    New Siberian Singers, Musica Aeterna, Teodor Currentzis

  • Record Label: Alpha - 140
  • Medium: CD

Search Music Reviews

Search Sponsor

  • Insider Reviews only
  • Click here for Search Tips

Visit Our Merchandise Store

Visit Store
  • Ideally Cast Met Revival of Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette
    Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, NY; March 19, 2024—The Met has revived Bartlett Sher’s 1967 production of Gounod’s R&J hot on the heels of its
  • An Ozawa Story, November, 1969
    Much has justifiably been written regarding Seiji Ozawa’s extraordinary abilities and achievements as a conductor, and similarly about his generosity, graciousness, and sense of humor
  • Arvo Pärt’s Passio At St. John The Divine
    Cathedral of St John the Divine, New York, NY; January 26, 2024—When one thinks of musical settings of Christ’s Passion, one normally thinks of the