cancelled
Masterpiece week Purcell
- Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas – his only opera without spoken text – was performed in 1689 by ‘the young gentlewomen’ of Josias Priest’s Chelsea boarding school. It has since been reprised countless times in various versions, including one with a man in the role of the Sorceress
- Dido's lament When I am Laid in Earth is one of the most famous arias in music history. Its bass line alone is enough to give you goose bumps
- Originally the opera also had an allegorical prologue set to music (and a spoken afterword), the notes of which are now lost
