Purcell: Dido & Aeneas / Kirkby, Thomas, Nelson, Taverner Players, Parrott
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Music CD Cover
Edition: Music CDCD Release Date: 1992-07-29
Music Label: Chandos
Soundtracks:
- Dido & Aeneas: Overture
- Dido & Aeneas: Act II Scene 1 (The Cave)
- Dido & Aeneas: Act I Scene 2 (The Grove)
- Dido & Aeneas: Act III (The Ships)
Free Music Notes for Purcell: Dido & Aeneas / Kirkby, Thomas, Nelson, Taverner Players, Parrott
Free Music Review: An hour of unalloyed pleasure
Hit: 4 Stars
I studied "Dido and Aeneas" about two years ago having performed in it at school, and at this precise moment I am four weeks away from another production with the York University Chamber Choir. In the words of our conductor Peter Seymour, this piece is indeed an hour of unalloyed pleasure, and this is one of the best out of at least five recordings I am familiar with. Emma Kirkby's wonderfully pure voice is just the thing to create the true Dido effect: most other soprani interpret it well but bring an inappropriately operatic vibrato to a quintessentially Baroque sound world. In some ways this is also a disadvantage, as her Dido also sounds rather more young and innocent than we might imagine, but then again, what else is opera about but a catalyst for the imagination? One other performer needs complimenting, namely Jantina Noorman, who sincerely had me shivering from her first note as the Sorceress. The casting is not entirely brilliant - why did they have a soprano as the Sailor? - but the Taverner Choir adds a sparkling vocal background whilst the linked orchestra is also very good and very well directed. The only further problem I would add (and a minor problem at that) is the division of the tracks - there are only four tracks, whereas the technology available to later producers has enabled them to split the opera up more conveniently for students and listeners who buy this for particular favourite moments.
This release is now 19 years old - but Chandos still have every reason to be proud of it.
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