Choir of Clare College: Recordings

Henry Purcell - Dido and Aeneas

(conducted by René Jacobs)

Harmonia Mundi HMC 901683 compact disk (£15)

It was probably in 1684-85, a year or two after the first performance of John Blow's Venus and Adonis which was clearly his model, that Purcell composed Dido and Aeneas, now recognised as one of the great monuments of opera. The sudden death of Charles II, for whose court it was commissioned, may have meant it was not actually produced until the performance given in a girls' school in Chelsea in 1689, long thought to have been the occasion for which it was written. The skilful construction of Dido and Aeneas, with that rich mixture of comic and tragic elements so characteristic of 17th century English theatre, perfectly illustrates Purcell's extraordinary dramatic sense.

Lynne Dawson - soprano

Rosemary Joshua - soprano

Gerald Finley - baritone
Clare College Choir

Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment

Conducted by René Jacobs

Listen to the chorus To the hills and the vales

Choir of Clare College: Recordings

Henry Purcell - Dido and Aeneas

(conducted by René Jacobs)

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