Victoria de los Angeles – Purcell: Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626 (2020) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Dido and Aeneas (Z. 626) is an opera in a prologue and three acts, written by the English Baroque composer Henry Purcell with a libretto by Nahum Tate. The dates of the composition and first performance of the opera are uncertain. It was composed no later than July 1688, and had been performed at Josias Priest’s girls’ school in London by the end of 1689. Some scholars argue for a date of composition as early as 1683. The story is based on Book IV of Virgil’s Aeneid. It recounts the love of Dido, Queen of Carthage, for the Trojan hero Aeneas, and her despair when he abandons her. A monumental work in Baroque opera, Dido and Aeneas is remembered as one of Purcell’s foremost theatrical works.[6] It was also Purcell’s only true opera, as well as his only all-sung dramatic work. One of the earliest known English operas, it owes much to John Blow’s Venus and Adonis, both in structure and in overall effect.

The influence of Cavalli’s opera Didone is also apparent. Both works use the prologue/three acts format and there are similarities between, for instance, Mercury’s solo in Didone and the solo “Come away fellow sailors” in Purcell’s work.

Tracklist:
1. Raymond Leppard – Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626: Overture (02:43)
2. Heather Harper – Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626, Act I: “Shake the Cloud from off Your Brow” (Belinda) (00:43)
3. Ambrosian Singers – Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626, Act I: “Banish Sorrow, Banish Care” (Chorus) (00:37)
4. Victoria de los Angeles – Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626, Act I: “Ah! Belinda, I Am Prest with Torment” (Dido) (04:02)
5. Victoria de los Angeles – Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626, Act I: “Grief Increases by Conceling” (Belinda, Dido) (00:44)
6. Ambrosian Singers – Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626, Act I: “When Monarchs Unite” (Chorus) (00:16)
7. Victoria de los Angeles – Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626, Act I: “Whence Could so Much Virtue Spring?” (Dido) (02:13)
8. Elizabeth Robson – Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626, Act I: “Fear No Danger to Ensue” (Belinda, Second Woman, Chorus) (01:45)
9. Victoria de los Angeles – Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626, Act I: “See, Your Royal Guest Appears” (Belinda, Aeneas, Dido) (00:53)
10. Ambrosian Singers – Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626, Act I: “Cupid Only Throws the Dart” (Chorus) (00:42)
11. Peter Glossop – Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626, Act I: “If Not for Mine, for Empire’s Sake” (Aeneas) (00:24)
12. Heather Harper – Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626, Act I: “Pursue Thy Conquest, Love” (Belinda) (00:55)
13. Ambrosian Singers – Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626, Act I: “To the Hills and the Vales” (Chorus) (01:24)
14. Raymond Leppard – Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626, Act I: The Triumphing Dance (01:17)
15. Clare Walmseley – Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626, Act I: “Wayward Sisters” (Sorceress, First Witch) (03:13)
16. Ambrosian Singers – Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626, Act I: “Harm’s Our Delight and Mischief All Our Skill” (Chorus) (00:17)
17. Patricia Johnson – Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626, Act I: “The Queen of Carthage, Whom We Hate” (Sorceress, Chorus) (00:47)
18. Clare Walmseley – Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626, Act I: “Ruin’d Ere the Set of Sun?” (First and Second Witches, Sorceress, Chorus) (01:36)
19. Clare Walmseley – Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626, Act I: “But, Ere We This Perform” (First and Second Witches) (01:14)
20. Ambrosian Singers – Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626, Act I: “In Our Deep Vaulted Cell” (Chorus) (01:40)
21. Raymond Leppard – Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626, Act I: Echo Dance of Furies (01:20)
22. Raymond Leppard – Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626, Act II: Ritornelle (01:16)
23. Heather Harper – Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626, Act II: “Thanks to These Lonesome Vales” (Belinda, Chorus) (01:37)
24. Elizabeth Robson – Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626, Act II: “Oft She Visits This Lov’d Moiuntain” (Second Woman) (02:41)
25. Victoria de los Angeles – Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626, Act II: “Behold, Upon My Bending Spear” (Aeneas, Dido) (00:32)
26. Heather Harper – Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626, Act II: “Haste, Haste to Town” (Belinda, Chorus) (00:52)
27. Sybil Michelow – Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626, Act II: “Stay, Prince! And Hear Great Jove’s Command” (Spirit, Aeneas) (02:51)
28. Robert Tear – Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626, Act III: “Come Away, Fellow Sailors” (Sailor, Chorus) (01:43)
29. Raymond Leppard – Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626, Act III: Sailors’ Dance (00:53)
30. Clare Walmseley – Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626, Act III: “See, See the Flags and Streamers Curling” (Sorceress, First and Second Witches) (01:00)
31. Patricia Johnson – Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626, Act III: “Our Next Notion Must Be to Storm Her Lover” (Sorceress) (00:40)
32. Ambrosian Singers – Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626, Act III: “Destruction’s Our Delight” (Chorus) (00:45)
33. Raymond Leppard – Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626, Act III: Witches’ Dance (01:18)
34. Victoria de los Angeles – Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626, Act III: “Your Counsel All Is Urg’d in Vain” (Dido, Aeneas, Belinda) (04:09)
35. Ambrosian Singers – Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626, Act III: “Great Minds Against Themselves Conspire” (Chorus) (01:25)
36. Victoria de los Angeles – Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626, Act III: “Thy Hand, Belinda” (Dido) (01:00)
37. Victoria de los Angeles – Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626, Act III: “When I Am Laid in Earth” (Dido) (03:39)
38. Ambrosian Singers – Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626, Act III: “With Drooping Wings Ye Cupids Come” (Chorus) (03:09)