Dido & Aeneas

AVIE continues to mine the rich catalog of recordings made by Andrew Parrott and his Taverner Choir & Players with a sumptuous reissue of Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas. The performance is as fresh as when the recording was made in 1994, with baritone Ben Parry as the Trojan hero Aeneas, and soprano Emily Van Evera as the abandoned Queen of Carthage, delivering an interpretation of Dido’s Lament that is as dignified as it is sublime

Reviews

‘Casting Ben Parry as Aeneas was a minor masterstroke. Parry will never strut the stage of the Met – his singing is more akin to what one might expect in a carefully cast musical – but his youthful, slightly husky Aeneas is wholly credible. What better to excuse the Trojan king’s rather odd behaviour than lack of experience? Emily van Evera’s Dido, Jane Lax’s Belinda and Haden Andrews’s Sorceress are all equally good, and Parrot directs the excellent Taverner Players in a performance that charms as well as moves in abundance.’

Full review at: https://www.classical-music.com/reviews/opera/purcell-48/