Victoria de los Angeles, Peter Glossop, Heather Harper, English Chamber Orchestra & Sir John Barbirolli - Purcell: Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626 (Remastered) (2020)

Dido and Aeneas (Z. 626) is an opera in a prologue and three acts, written by the English Baroque composer Henry Purcell with a libretto by Nahum Tate. The dates of the composition and first performance of the opera are uncertain. It was composed no later than July 1688, and had been performed at Josias Priest's girls' school in London by the end of 1689. Some scholars argue for a date of composition as early as 1683. The story is based on Book IV of Virgil's Aeneid. It recounts the love of Dido, Queen of Carthage, for the Trojan hero Aeneas, and her despair when he abandons her. A monumental work in Baroque opera, Dido and Aeneas is remembered as one of Purcell's foremost theatrical works.[6] It was also Purcell's only true opera, as well as his only all-sung dramatic work. One of the earliest known English operas, it owes much to John Blow's Venus and Adonis, both in structure and in overall effect.

The influence of Cavalli's opera Didone is also apparent. Both works use the prologue/three acts format and there are similarities between, for instance, Mercury's solo in Didone and the solo "Come away fellow sailors" in Purcell's work.

Victoria De Los Angeles, soprano
Patricia Johnson, mezzo
Sybil Michelow, mezzo-soprano
Clare Walmesley, soprano
Elisabeth Robson, soprano
Heather Harper, soprano
Robert Tear, tenor
Peter Glossop, baritone
Raymond Leppard, harpsichord
The Ambrosian Singers
John McCarthy, chorus master
English Chamber Orchestra
Sir John Barbirolli, conductor

Digitally remastered