Dido's Ghost

A new commission from Errollyn Wallen and Wesley Stace

‘Remember me, but ah! Forget my fate’ sings Dido at the end of Purcell’s opera. But life isn’t always quite so straightforward, and some memories have a destiny of their own. Set several years after the Carthaginian queen’s death, Dido’s Ghost finds Dido’s sister Anna abandoned on the shores of Aeneas’s new kingdom, igniting a murderous jealously in Aeneas’s wife Lavinia – and as events play out, its characters confront a past that refuses to fade. 

Co-commissioned by the Barbican, Buxton International Festival, Dunedin Consort and Mahogany Opera, Dido’s Ghost reframes, illuminates and expands Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. Performed on period instruments, Dido’s Ghost bridges the gap between worlds, as past blurs into present and memory becomes emotion in this ambitious new commission.

WORLD PREMIERE

6 JUNE, 20:00

Barbican Hall, Barbican Centre

TICKETS AVAILABLE VIA THE BARBICAN WEBSITE >>>

11, 14, 17 JULY, 19:15

Buxton Opera House, Buxton International Festival 

TICKETS AVAILABLE VIA THE BIF WEBSITE>>>

Company
Golda Schultz Dido
Matthew Brook Aeneas
Nardus Williams Belinda
Allison Cook Lavinia
Henry Waddington Sorcerer
Dunedin Consort
John Butt conductor
Wesley Stace libretto
Frederic Wake-Walker direction
Errollyn Wallen composer

Co-commissioned by the Barbican, Buxton International Festival, Dunedin Consort, Mahogany Opera and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra & Chorale. 

We are grateful to the support of Amati Global Investors, Hamish & Sophie Forsyth, Ian Hamilton, Prof. Ludmilla Jordanova, Anthony Newhouse, John & Madeleine Tattersall, Vaulkhard Douglas Home Music Trust, John & Carol Wates, Christian Wells, and to those donors who wish to remain anonymous. 

Photo credits: Errollyn Wallen, Golda Schultz (credit: Dario Acosta), Nardus Williams (credit Bertie Watson)