Henry Purcell:Dido and Aeneas
Date & Time:： 19:30:00 15 October 2008
Venue: Beijing Concert Hall
Price( RMB ):80、180、280、480、680VIP

Cast:

        Wilke te Brummelstroete（Dido）
        Maarten Koningsberger（Aeneas）
        Lorna Anderson (Belinda)
        Giles Underwood (The Sorcerer)
The Academy of Ancient Music, Orchestra and Chorus
       Richard Egarr, director/harpsichord

Henry Purcell

Henry Purcell was boin in a musical family who served the King for generations in 1659.He is said to have been composing at nine years old.In the Chapel Royal young Purcell studied with Dr. John Blow. Dr. Burney.At the age of 18,he was appointed composer-in-ordinary for the king's violins and two years later succeeded his teacher,Blow,as organist of Westminster Abbey.During this period he wrote a large-scale ode or ‘welcome song’ to mark a special event in the royal calendar ,the spendid fantasias for viols and the Sonnata's of III. Part.When he was 30,he wrote the the composition of his chamber opera Dido and Aeneas, which forms a very important landmark in the history of English dramatic music. It is occasionally considered the first genuine English opera.
In 1695, Purcell died at the height of his career in his mid-thirties. Though he was to live a very short life,Purcell was one of the greatest composers of the Baroque period and one of the greatest of all English composers.
Dido and Aeneas
Henry Purcell has often been called England's finest native composer.And his opera Dido and Aeneas has often been considered the finest English opera.Dido and Aeneas comprises three acts and lasts about an hour.The first known performance was at a girl's school in the spring of 1698.
Nahum Tate wrote the script based on his own play Brutus of Alba, and a story from the fourth book of Virgil's Aeneid,of the legendary Queen of Carthage Dido and the Trojan refugee Aeneas.When Aeneas and his crew are shipwrecked in Carthage, he and the queen fall in love. However, Aeneas must soon leave to found Rome. Dido cannot live without him and awaits death.

The Academy of Ancient Music
The Academy of Ancient Music ,re-founded by British conductor and harpsichordist Christopher Hogwood in 1973 ,is one of the world's first period-instrument ensembles.The musicians generally play Baroque and Classical music.The orchestra regularly plays at prestigious venues and festivals in the United Kingdom and around the world.
In 2006,Richard Egarr was appointed to succeed Christopher Hogwood as Music Director of The Academy of Ancient Music.