oft she visits this lone mountain

25. Oft she visits this lone mountain

About the text.

• Author: Nahum Tate

Instrumentation

• 2nd Woman ( Soprano )
• Violoncello + Basso continuo
• Harpsichord

Similar instrumentation

• Aria: Furie terribile Handel
• Aria: La sorte, il ciel, amor Handel
• Aria: O dolce mia speranza Handel
• Purcell soprano songs ›
• Purcell opera songs ›
• Songs in d minor ›
• Songs in C meter ›
• Tempo Allegretto ›
• Full score: Henry Purcell, The Works of Henry Purcell vol. 3 (London: Novello & Company Limited, 1979), p. 60
• Scores at IMSLP  ›

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Dido and Aeneas

Libretto by nahum tate.

(The Palace. Enter Dido, Belinda and attendants)

Shake the cloud from off your brow,

Fate your wishes does allow;

Empire growing, pleasures flowing,

Fortune smiles and so should you.

Banish sorrow, banish care,

Grief should ne’er approach the fair.

Ah! Belinda, I am press’d

With torment not to be confess’d.

Peace and I are strangers grown.

I languish till my grief is known,

Yet would not have it guess’d.

Grief increases by concealing.

Mine admits of no revealing.

Then let me speak; the Trojan guest

Into your tender thoughts has press’d.

SECOND WOMAN

The greatest blessing Fate can give,

Our Carthage to secure, and Troy revive.

When monarchs unite, how happy their state;

They triumph at once o’er their foes and their fate.

Whence could so much virtue spring?

What storms, what battles did he sing?

Anchises’ valor mix’d with Venus’ charms,

How soft in peace, and yet how fierce in arms.

A tale so strong and full of woe

Might melt the rocks, as well as you.

What stubborn heart unmov’d could see

Such distress, such piety?

Mine with storms of care oppress’d

Is taught to pity the distress’d;

Mean wretches’ grief can touch

So soft, so sensible my breast,

But ah! I fear I pity his too much.

BELINDA and SECOND WOMAN

Fear no danger to ensue,

The hero loves as well as you.

Ever gentle, ever smiling,

And the cares of life beguiling

Cupids strew your paths with flowers

Gather’d from Elysian bowers.

Fear no danger to ensue

And the cares of life beguiling.

(Æneas enters with his train)

See, your royal guest appears;

How godlike is the form he bears!

When, royal fair, shall I be bless’d,

With cares of love and state distress’d?

Fate forbids what you pursue.

Æneas has no fate but you!

Let Dido smile, and I’ll defy

The feeble stroke of Destiny.

Cupid only throws the dart

That’s dreadful to a warrior’s heart,

And she that wounds can only cure the smart.

If not for mine, for empire’s sake.

Some pity on your lover take;

Ah! make not in a hopeless fire

A hero fall, and Troy once more expire.

Pursue thy conquest, Love - her eyes

Confess the flame her tongue denies.

To the hills and the vales,

To the rocks and the mountains,

To the musical groves, and the cool shady fountains

Let the triumphs of love and of beauty be shown.

Go revel ye Cupids, the day is your own.

The Triumphing Dance

(The Cave. Enter Sorceress)

Prelude for the Witches

Wayward sisters, you that fright

The lonely traveler by night,

Who like dismal ravens crying

Beat the windows of the dying,

Appear at my call, and share in the fame.

Of a mischief shall make all Carthage flame.

Appear! Appear! Appear! Appear!

(Enter witches)

FIRST WITCH

Say, Beldame, what’s thy will?

Harm’s our delight and mischief all our skill.

The Queen of Carthage, whom we hate,

As we do all in prosp’rous state,

Ere sunset shall most wretched prove,

Depriv’d of fame, of life and love.

Ho, ho, ho, etc.

FIRST and SECOND WITCHES

Ruin’d ere the set of sun?

Tell us, how shall this be done?

The Trojan Prince you know is bound

By Fate to seek Italian ground;

The Queen and he are now in chase,

Hark! Hark! The cry comes on apace!

But when they’ve done, my trusty elf,

In form of Mercury himself,

As sent from Jove, shall chide his stay,

And charge him sail tonight with all his fleet away.

But ere we this perform

We’ll conjure for a storm.

To mar their hunting sport,

And drive ‘em back to court.

In our deep vaulted cell.

The charm we’ll prepare,

Too dreadful a practice

for this open air.

Echo Dance of Furies

(The Grove. Enter Æneas, Dido, Belinda and their train)

Thanks to these lonesome vales,

These desert hills and dales,

So fair the game, so rich the sport

Diana’s self might to these woods resort.

Oft she visits this lone mountain,

Oft she bathes her in this fountain.

Here, Actæon met his fate,

Pursued by his own hounds;

And after mortal wounds,

Discover’d too late

Here Actæon met his fate.

(A dance to entertain Æneas

by Dido’s women)

Behold, upon my bending spear

A monster’s head stands bleeding

With tushes [tusks] far exceeding

Those did Venus’ huntsman tear.

The skies are clouded:

Hark! How thunder

Rends the mountain oaks asunder!

Haste to town! this open field

No shelter from the storm can yield

Haste to town!

Haste to town! This open field

(The Spirit of the Sorceress descends to

Æneas in the likeness of Mercury)

Stay, Prince, and hear great Jove’s command:

He summons thee this night away.

Tonight thou must forsake this land;

The angry god will brook no longer stay.

Jove commands thee, waste no more

In love’s delights those precious hours

Allow’d by th’almighty powers

To gain th’Hesperian shore

And ruin’d Troy restore.

Jove’s commands shall be obey’d;

Tonight our anchors shall be weigh’d.

But ah! What language can I try,

My injur’d Queen to pacify?

No sooner she resigns her heart

But from her arms I’m forc’d to part.

How can so hard a fate be took?

One night enjoy’d, the next forsook.

Yours be the blame, ye gods! for I

Obey your will; but with more ease could die

(The Ships)

Come away, fellow sailors, your anchors be weighing,

Time and tide will admit no delaying;

Take a boozy short leave of your nymphs on the shore,

And silence their mourning

With vows of returning,

But never intending to visit them more.

Come away, fellow sailors, your anchors be weighing

The Sailor’s Dance

(Enter Sorceress and Witches)

See, see the flags and streamers curling,

Anchors weighing, sails unfurling.

Phoebe’s pale deluding beams

Gilding o’er deceitful streams.

Our plot has took,

The Queen’s forsook!

Elissa’s ruin’d, ho, o, ho, etc.

Our next motion

Must be to storm her lover on the ocean.

From the ruin of others our pleasures we borrow;

Elissa bleeds tonight, and Carthage flames tomorrow.

Destruction’s our delight,

Delight our greatest sorrow;

Elissa dies tonight,

And Carthage flames tomorrow.

The Witches Dance

(Jack of the Lanthorn leads the Sailors out of

their way among the Witches)

(Enter Dido, Belinda and women)

Your counsel all is urg’d in vain,

To earth and heaven I will complain;

To earth and heaven why do I call?

Earth and heaven conspire my fall.

To Fate I sue, of other means bereft,

The only refuge for the wretched left.

See, madam, see where Prince appears!

Such sorrow in his look he bears

As would convince you still he’s true.

What shall lost Æneas do?

How, royal fair, shall I impart

The god’s decree, and tell you we must part?

Thus on fatal banks of the Nile

Weeps the deceitful crocodile;

Thus hypocrites that murder act

Make heav’n and gods the authors of the fact!

By all that’s good -

By all that’s good, no more!

All that’s good you have forswore.

To your promis’d empire fly,

And let forsaken Dido die.

In spite of Jove’s commands I’ll stay,

Offend the gods, and love obey.

No, faithless man, thy course pursue;

I’m now resolv’d, as well as you.

No repentance shall reclaim

The injur’d Dido’s slighted flame;

for ‘tis enough, what e’er you now decree,

That you had once a thought of leaving me.

Let Jove say what he please, I’ll stay!

Away, away!

No, no, I’ll stay and Love obey.

No, no, away, away,

To Death I’ll fly

If longer you delay.

Away, Away!

(Exit Æneas)

But Death alas! I cannot shun;

Death must come when he is gone.

Great minds against themselves conspire,

And shun the cure they most desire.

Thy hand, Belinda; darkness shades me,

On thy bosom let me rest;

More I would but Death invades me;

Death is now a welcome guest.

When I am laid in earth, may my wrongs create

No trouble in thy breast,

Remember me! But ah! forget my fate.

( Cupids appear in the clouds o’er her tomb)

With drooping wings ye Cupids come,

And scatter roses on her tomb.

Soft and gentle as her heart;

Keep here your watch, and never part.

Cupid’s Dance

Dido and Aeneas Libretto

Cast: DIDO or Elissa , Queen of Carthage (Soprano) BELINDA, her sister (Soprano) SECOND WOMAN (Soprano) SORCERESS (Mezzo-Soprano) FIRST WITCH (Soprano) SECOND WITCH (Soprano) SPIRIT (Mezzo-Soprano) AENEAS, a Trojan Prince (Tenor) SAILOR (Soprano or Tenor) CHORUS Dido's train, Aeneas' train, Fairies, Sailors PROLOGUE [The music to the prologue is lost] Phoebus Rises in the Chariot. Over the Sea, The Nereids out of the Sea. PHOEBUS From Aurora's Spicy Bed, Phoebus rears his Sacred Head. His Coursers Advancing, Curvetting and Prancing. FIRST NEREID Phoebus strives in vain to Tame'em, With Ambrosia Fed too high. SECOND NEREID Phoebus ought not now to blame'em, Wild and eager to Survey The fairest Pageant of the Sea. PHOEBUS Tritons and Nereids come pay your Devotion CHORUS To the New rising Star of the Ocean. Venus Descends in her Chariot, The Tritons out of the Sea. The Tritons Dance NEREID Look down ye Orbs and See A New Divinity. PHOEBUS Whose Lustre does Out-Shine Your fainter Beams, and half Eclipses mine, Give Phoebus leave to Prophecy. Phoebus all Events can see. Ten Thousand Thousand Harmes. From such prevailing Charmes, To Gods and Men must instantly Ensue. CHORUS And if the Deity's above, Are Victims of the powers of Love, What must wretched Mortals do. VENUS Fear not Phoebus, fear not me, A harmless Deity. These are all my Guards ye View, What can these blind Archers do. PHOEBUS Blind they are, but strike the Heart, VENUS What Phoebus say's is alwayes true. They Wound indeed, but 'tis a pleasing smart. PHOEBUS Earth and Skies address their Duty, To the Sovereign Queen of Beauty. All Resigning, None Repining. At her undisputed Sway. CHORUS To Phoebus and Venus our Homage wee'l pay, Her Charmes blest the Night, as his Beams blest the day. The Nereids Dance. Exit. The Spring Enters with her Nymphs. SCENE I The Grove. VENUS See the Spring in all her Glory, CHORUS Welcomes Venus to the Shore. VENUS Smiling Hours are now before you, Hours that may return no more. Exit, Soft Musick. SPRING Our Youth and Form declare, For what we were designed. 'Twas Nature made us Fair, And you must make us kind. He that fails of Addressing, 'Tis but Just he shou'd fail of Possessing. The Spring and Nymphs Dance SHEPHERDESSES Jolly Shepherds come away, To Celebrate this Genial Day, And take the Friendly Hours you vow to pay. Now make Trial, And take no Denial. Now carry your Game, or for ever give o're. The Shepherds and Shepherdesses Dance CHORUS Let us Love and happy Live, Possess those smiling Hours, The more auspicious Powers, And gentle Planets give. Prepare those soft returns to Meet, That makes Loves Torments Sweet. The Nymphs Dance Enter the Country Shepherds and Shepherdesses. HE Tell, Tell me, prithee Dolly, And leave thy Melancholy. Why on the Plaines, the Nymphs and Swaines, This Morning are so Jolly. SHE By Zephires gentle Blowing. And Venus Graces Flowing. The Sun has bin to Court our Queen, And Tired the Spring with wooing. HE The Sun does guild our Bowers, SHE The Spring does yield us Flowers. She sends the Vine, HE He makes the Wine, To Charm our happy Hours. SHE She gives our Flocks their Feeding, HE He makes'em fit for Breeding. SHE She decks the Plain, HE He fills the Grain, And makes it worth the Weeding. CHORUS But the Jolly Nymph Thitis that long his Love sought, Has Flustred him now with a large Mornings draught, Let's go and divert him, whilst he is Mellow, You know in his Cups he's a Hot-Headed Fellow. The Countreys Maids Dance Exit ACT THE FIRST Overture The Palace Enter Dido, Belinda and train BELINDA Shake the cloud from off your brow, Fate your wishes does allow; Empire growing, pleasures flowing, Fortune smiles and so should you. CHORUS Banish sorrow, banish care, Grief should ne'er approach the fair. DIDO Ah! Belinda, I am press'd With torment not to be confess'd, Peace and I are strangers grown. I languish till my grief is known, Yet would not have it guess'd. BELINDA Grief increases by concealing, DIDO Mine admits of no revealing. BELINDA Then let me speak; the Trojan guest Into your tender thoughts has press'd; The greatest blessing Fate can give Our Carthage to secure and Troy revive. CHORUS When monarchs unite, how happy their state, They triumph at once o'er their foes and their fate. DIDO Whence could so much virtue spring? What storms, what battles did he sing? Anchises' valour mix'd with Venus' charms How soft in peace, and yet how fierce in arms! BELINDA A tale so strong and full of woe Might melt the rocks as well as you. SECOND WOMAN What stubborn heart unmov'd could see Such distress, such piety? DIDO Mine with storms of care oppress'd Is taught to pity the distress'd. Mean wretches' grief can touch, So soft, so sensible my breast; But ah! I fear, I pity his too much. BELINDA AND SECOND WOMAN repeated by Chorus Fear no danger to ensue, The Hero loves as well as you, Ever gentle, ever smiling, And the cares of life beguiling, Cupid strew your path with flowers Gather'd from Elysian bowers. Dance this Chorus The Baske Aeneas enters with his train BELINDA See, your Royal Guest appears; How Godlike is the form he bears! AENEAS When, Royal Fair, shall I be bless'd With cares of love and state distress'd? DIDO Fate forbids what you pursue. AENEAS Aeneas has no fate but you! Let Dido smile and I'll defy The feeble stroke of Destiny. CHORUS Cupid only throws the dart That's dreadful to a warrior's heart, And she that wounds can only cure the smart. AENEAS If not for mine, for Empire's sake, Some pity on your lover take; Ah! make not, in a hopeless fire A hero fall, and Troy once more expire. BELINDA Pursue thy conquest, Love; her eyes Confess the flame her tongue denies. A Dance. Gittars Chacony CHORUS To the hills and the vales, to the rocks and the mountains, To the musical groves and the cool shady fountains. Let the triumphs of love and of beauty be shown. Go revel, ye Cupids, the day is your own. The Triumphing Dance ACT THE SECOND SCENE I The Cave Enter Sorceress Prelude for the Witches SORCERESS Wayward sisters, you that fright The lonely traveller by night. Who, like dismal ravens crying, Beat the windows of the dying, Appear! Appear at my call, and share in the fame Of a mischief shall make all Carthage flame. Appear! Enter Enchantresses FIRST WITCH Say, Beldame, say what's thy will. CHORUS Harm's our delight and mischief all our skill. SORCERESS The Queen of Carthage, whom we hate, As we do all in prosp'rous state, Ere sunset, shall most wretched prove, Depriv'd of fame, of life and love! CHORUS Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! TWO WITCHES Ruin'd ere the set of sun? Tell us, how shall this be done? SORCERESS The Trojan Prince, you know, is bound By Fate to seek Italian ground; The Queen and he are now in chase. FIRST WITCH Hark! Hark! the cry comes on apace. SORCERESS But, when they've done, my trusty Elf In form of Mercury himself As sent from Jove, shall chide his stay, And charge him sail tonight with all his fleet away. CHORUS Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! Enter a Drunken Sailor; a dance TWO WITCHES But ere we this perform, We'll conjure for a storm To mar their hunting sport, And drive 'em back to court. CHORUS in the manner of an echo In our deep vaulted cell the charm we'll prepare, Too dreadful a practice for this open air. Echo Dance ( Enchantresses and Fairies ) SCENE II The Grove Enter Aeneas, Dido, Belinda, and their train Ritornelle ( Orchestra ) BELINDA repeated by Chorus Thanks to these lovesome vales, These desert hills and dales, So fair the game, so rich the sport, Diana's self might to these woods resort. Gitter Ground A Dance SECOND WOMAN Oft she visits this lone mountain, Oft she bathes her in this fountain; Here Actaeon met his fate, Pursued by his own hounds, And after mortal wounds Discover'd, discover'd too late. A Dance to entertain Aeneas by Dido's women AENEAS Behold, upon my bending spear A monster's head stands bleeding, With tushes far exceeding Those did Venus' huntsman tear. DIDO The skies are clouded, hark! how thunder Rends the mountain oaks a sunder. BELINDA repeated by Chorus Haste, haste to town, this open field No shelter from the storm can yield. exeunt Dido and Belinda and train The Spirit of the Sorceress descends to Aeneas in the likeness of Mercury SPIRIT Stay, Prince and hear great Jove's command; He summons thee this Night away. AENEAS Tonight? SPIRIT Tonight thou must forsake this land, The Angry God will brook no longer stay. Jove commands thee, waste no more In Love's delights, those precious hours, Allow'd by th'Almighty Powers. To gain th' Hesperian shore And ruined Troy restore. AENEAS Jove's commands shall be obey'd, Tonight our anchors shall be weighed. Exit Spirit But ah! what language can I try My injur'd Queen to pacify: No sooner she resigns her heart, But from her arms I'm forc'd to part. How can so hard a fate be took? One night enjoy'd, the next forsook. Yours be the blame, ye gods! For I Obey your will, but with more ease could die. CHORUS The Sorceress and her Enchantresses Then since our Charmes have sped, A Merry Dance be led By the Nymphs of Carthage to please us. They shall all Dance to ease us, A Dance that shall make the Spheres to wonder, Rending those fair Groves asunder. The Groves Dance ACT THE THIRD SCENE I The Ships Enter the Sailors Prelude FIRST SAILOR repeated by Chorus Come away, fellow sailors, your anchors be weighing, Time and tide will admit no delaying. Take a boozy short leave of your nymphs on the shore, And silence their mourning With vows of returning But never intending to visit them more. The Sailors' Dance Enter the Sorceress, and her Enchantresses SORCERESS See the flags and streamers curling Anchors weighing, sails unfurling. FIRST WITCH Phoebe's pale deluding beams Gilding o'er deceitful streams. SECOND WITCH Our plot has took, The Queen's forsook. TWO WITCHES Elissa's ruin'd, ho, ho! Our plot has took, The Queen's forsook, ho, ho! SORCERESS Our next Motion Must be to storm her lover on the ocean! From the ruin of others our pleasures we borrow; Elissa bleeds tonight, and Carthage flames tomorrow. CHORUS Destruction's our delight Delight our greatest sorrow! Elissa dies tonight, And Carthage flames tomorrow. Ha, ha! The Witches' Dance Jack of the the Lanthorn leads the sailors out of their way among the Enchantresses. SCENE II The palace Enter Dido, Belinda and train DIDO Your counsel all is urg'd in vain, To Earth and Heaven I will complain! To Earth and Heaven why do I call? Earth and Heaven conspire my fall. To Fate I sue, of other means bereft, The only refuge for the wretched left. Enter Aeneas BELINDA See, Madam, see where the Prince appears; Such sorrow in his look he bears As would convince you still he's true. AENEAS What shall lost Aeneas do? How, Royal Fair, shall I impart The God's decree, and tell you we must part? DIDO Thus on the fatal Banks of Nile, Weeps the deceitful crocodile; Thus hypocrites, that murder act, Make Heaven and Gods the authors of the Fact. AENEAS By all that's good ... DIDO By all that's good, no more! All that's good you have forswore. To your promis'd empire fly And let forsaken Dido die. AENEAS In spite of Jove's command, I'll stay, Offend the Gods, and Love obey. DIDO No, faithless man, thy course pursue; I'm now resolv'd as well as you. No repentance shall reclaim The injur'd Dido's slighted flame. For 'tis enough, whate'er you now decree, That you had once a thought of leaving me. AENEAS Let Jove say what he will: I'll stay! DIDO Away, away! No, no, away! AENEAS No, no, I'll stay, and Love obey! DIDO To Death I'll fly If longer you delay; Away, away!..... Exit Aeneas But Death, alas! I cannot shun; Death must come when he is gone. CHORUS Great minds against themselves conspire And shun the cure they most desire. DIDO Thy hand, Belinda; darkness shades me, On thy bosom let me rest, More I would, but Death invades me; Death is now a welcome guest. When I am laid in earth, May my wrongs create No trouble in thy breast; Remember me, but ah! forget my fate. Cupids appear in the clouds o'er her tomb CHORUS With drooping wings you Cupids come, And scatter roses on her tomb. Soft and gentle as her heart Keep here your watch, and never part. Cupids Dance

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• Henry Purcell feat. Emmanuelle Haïm Lyrics
• Purcell: Dido and Aeneas Album
• Dido and Aeneas, ACT 2, Scene 2: The Grove: Oft she visits this lone mountain (Second Woman) Lyrics

Henry Purcell feat. Emmanuelle Haïm - Dido and Aeneas, ACT 2, Scene 2: The Grove: Oft she visits this lone mountain (Second Woman) Lyrics

Artist: Henry Purcell feat. Emmanuelle Haïm

Album: Purcell: Dido and Aeneas

Oft she Visits this lone Mountain, Oft she bathes her in this Fountain. Oft she Visits this lone Mountain, Oft she bathes her in this Fountain. Here Acteon met his Fate, Here Acteon met his Fate, Pursued by his own Hounds, And after Mortal Wounds, And after Mortal Wounds, Discover'd, discover'd too late. And after Mortal Wounds, Discover'd, discover'd too late.

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Dido and Aeneas, Z 626 (Henry Purcell)

• 1.1.1.1 Act 1
• 1.1.1.2 Act 2
• 1.1.1.3 Act 3
• 1.2.1 29. Chorus: "Come away, fellow sailors"
• 1.2.2 Final scene "Thy hand … When I am laid … With drooping"
• 2.1 External websites:
• 3 Original text and translations

Music files

Complete work.

Individual movements to CPDL #11860

Excerpts and arrangements, 29. chorus: "come away, fellow sailors".

Final scene "Thy hand … When I am laid … With drooping"

General Information

Title: Dido and Aeneas , Z. 626 Composer: Henry Purcell Lyricist:

Number of voices: 4vv   Voicing: SATB , plus 9 solo roles: 2 mezzo-sopranos , 5 sopranos , 2 tenors Genre: Secular ,  Opera

Language: English Instruments: Strings : Violin I, Violin II, Viola, Violoncello, Basso Continuo/Harpsichord)

First   published: 1841  Musical Antiquarian Society     2nd   published: 1889  Purcell Society Works ed. Cummings     3rd   published: 1925  ed. Dent (after Tenbury version) Description:  Fowler's edition CPDL #11860 is based on MS 1266 (5) at St. Michaels College, Tenbury, a mid-18c copy. The earliest printed scores (1841 & 1889) follow 4 late-18c mss., making the Sorceress a bass and calling Belinda "Anna", besides differing considerably in musical details. Of the original version only a late 17c libretto survives. It includes 5 lost items: a prologue, dances with guitars following 11. "Pursue thy conquest, love" and 24. "Thanks to these lonesome vales", another witches' scene after Mercury's "Stay, prince, and hear", and an epilogue "All that we know the angels do above".

External websites:

• Free choir training aids for this work are available at Choralia .
• Dido and Aeneas, Z 626 (Henry Purcell) at the Petrucci Music Library (IMSLP)

View the Wikipedia article on Dido and Aeneas, Z 626 (Henry Purcell) .

Original text and translations

Original text and translations may be found at Dido and Aeneas .                                            

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Dido and Aeneas; Thanks to these lonesome vales [a]; Oft she visits this lone mountain [b]

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Other recordings from this album: Dido and Aeneas; Overture [a]; Shake the cloud from off your brow [b] Dido and Aeneas; Ah! Belinda [a]; When monarchs unite [b] Dido and Aeneas; Whence could so much virtue spring [a]; Fear no danger [b] Dido and Aeneas; See, see your royal guest appears Dido and Aeneas; Wayward sisters Dido and Aeneas; Ruin'd ere the set of sun? Dido and Aeneas; In our deep vaulted cell [a]; Echo dance of furies [b] Dido and Aeneas; Thanks to these lonesome vales [a]; Oft she visits this lone mountain [b] Dido and Aeneas; Behold upon My bending spear Dido and Aeneas; Come away, fellow sailors [a]; Sailor's dance [b]; See the flags and streamers [c] Dido and Aeneas; Our next motion [a]; Destruction's our delight [b]; Dance of the witches and sailors [c] Dido and Aeneas; Your council all is urg'd in vain [a]; Great minds against themselves conspire [b] Dido and Aeneas; Thy hand Belinda [a]; [b] When I am laid in earth Dido and Aeneas; With drooping wings, ye cupids

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Uploaded by jakej on January 16, 2019

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•   Saturday, May 4, 2024

Opera Today

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Prom 26: Dido and Cleopatra – Queens of Fascination

It made for a splendid late-night concert, a fine mix of repertoire familiar and (to me, at any rate) unfamiliar, any minor reservations I may have entertained relating entirely to the orchestra and conductor. Prohaska, if I may be forgiven for saying so, crowned herself queen of this repertoire, notwithstanding the frankly unpromising surroundings of the Royal Albert Hall.

We began, as indeed we should end, with Purcell, with Dido and Aeneas : one of the very greatest of English operas and indeed of ‘Baroque’ operas, if that problematical term may be held to mean anything at all. ‘ Tristan und Isolde in a pint pot,’ that legendary conductor of what was then not quite ‘early musicke’, Raymond Leppard, called it. There was no question from the Overture that Antonini was more at home with these, ‘his’ musicians than he had been with members of the LSO Chamber Orchestra in a concert last year at the Barbican. For one thing, the acoustic was kind to the instruments, lessening intonational problems, which were in any case rarely grave. Resplendent, regal in gold, our soprano walked onto the stage as the Overture drew to a close, ready to give a rich-toned, clear, beautifully ornamented account of Dido’s first number. Here, as elsewhere, what struck me about her ornamentation, aside from the awe-inspiring ease with which it and any other coloratura were despatched, was how it did not really register as ‘ornamentation’. It was musical and indeed verbal expression, created seemingly on the spot. (Whether that were actually the case is neither here nor there.) Her lightly acted performance also proved just the ticket. In homage perhaps to Goldilocks, another queen of sorts, it was neither too much nor too little.

Christoph Graupner’s Singspiel for Hamburg, Dido, Königin von Carthago (1707), was quite new to me. It is one of those curious – to our ears, yet not necessarily to those of the time – works written in German and Italian, standard Italian arias doing their thing whilst the action was largely advanced in the vernacular. I should certainly be keen to learn more. The Egyptian princess Menalippe’s ‘Holdestes Lispeln der spielenden Fluthen’ proved vividly pictorial. One could almost see – one could certainly hear – those rippling waters through ravishing instrumental playing. This may be too early and the wrong country too, but Poussin more than once came to my mind. When later Prohaska turned to the Queen of Carthage herself, we heard first a German accompagnato (‘Der Himmel ist von Donner Keylen schwer…’) followed by its Italian aria, ‘Infido Cupido’. This was very much music written and communicated in the terms of early eighteenth-century opera seria . Hearing it in this particular context, we understood both its roots in earlier opera and much of what distinguished it from its predecessors too. Prohaska’s stylistic awareness is never a sterile thing, ‘dogma’ in the slightly misleading popular understanding of the term; it is and here was always put to expressive, dramatic use. Much the same might be said of her performance of the tempest aria that ensued: of a genre yet not over-determined by it.

In between the Graupner excerpts, we heard music by Antonio Sartorio and Matthew Locke. The former’s Giulio Cesare in Egitto contains, according to the programme note, no fewer than sixty-five arias. Prohaska gave us two, ‘Non voglio amar’ and ‘Quando voglio’, the first furious – with foot-stamping – and, that inescapable word, tempestuous. I could not help but wonder whether the musicians might have been better off without a conductor in the first; Antonini looked a little awkward and the results might have been a little freer. No harm was done, though, and his provision of a recorder obbligato in the latter aria offered winning counterpoint to the woman of desires revealed by our queen of song. The Locke excerpt offered an ineffably ‘English’ contrast, much of it mysteriously veiled, harking back to the days – still current, of course, yet somewhat old-fashioned – of the viol consort.

Handel was next on the menu. Antonini’s way with the Concerto grosso, op.6 no.8, made me long for something a little grander, a little more aware of harmonic motion. This is, after all, orchestral music. Tastes being what they are today, that was never likely to be the case, though. I liked the way the Siciliana , its fifth movement, harked back in context to the seventeenth century. A hard-driven account of its Allegro successor proved less welcome. Handel’s own Giulio Cesare followed, its libretto derived by Nicola Francesco Haym from that of Giacomo Bussani for Sartorio. What a wonderful idea – obvious, one might think, yet unusual – it was to offer excerpts from both operas. In Cleopatra’s ‘Che sento? Oh dio! … Se pietà di me non senti’, Prohaska’s shading to dramatic ends opened up a new creative, expressive world. I felt – and I suspect much of the audience did likewise – a window into understanding of the queen’s character had been opened wide, even just by this account of a single aria. More please!

Dario Castello’s D minor Sonata, published in 1629, performed its bridging role well. It is perhaps not especially thrilling music, but it has its moments of interest; it also benefited, I think, from being given as chamber music, without a conductor. Moving forward a few years, yet remaining in Venice, we heard from Cavalli’s Dido, Prohaska adopting just the right – to my ears, at least – slightly post-Monteverdian air. (Yes, the great man was still alive in 1641, but that is hardly the point.) I can hardly offer greater praise than to say that her singing brought Frederica von Stade to mind, both in command of line and in its generosity of spirit. Hasse’s aria, from his Marc’Antonio e Cleopatra , sounded very much again from the world of later opera seria . Prohaska’s coloratura probably deserves another endorsement here: impeccable, both ‘musically’ and ‘dramatically’, not that the distinction is especially meaningful.

And so, we returned to Purcell. The Chaconne from The Fairy Queen had me long for Britten’s more generous way with such music, yet unquestionably it danced. A vivid narration from Dido and Aeneas , the Second Woman’s ‘Oft she visits this lone mountain’, was imbued with quite the sense of drama, given brevity and (relative) lack of context. Dido’s Lament was sung with expressive freedom that never approached licence, a reminder of Leppard’s Tristan­ designation, dignified without a hint of sentimentality. As an encore, we heard ‘Fear no danger to ensue’, the duet part taken by Antonini on recorder. A lovely concert, then, but in the best sense an educative one too. Bildung , one might say, is an excellent thing indeed.

Cast and production information:

Henry Purcell: Dido and Aeneas : Overture and ‘Ah! Belinda, I am pressed with torment’; Christoph Graupner: Dido, Königin von Carthago : ‘Holdestes Lispeln der spielenden Fluthen’’; Antonio Sartorio: Giulio Cesare in Egitto : ‘Non voglio amar’; Matthew Locke: The Tempest : ‘The Second Musick: Curtain Tune’; Sartorio: Giulio Cesare : ‘Quando voglio’; Graupner: Dido : ‘Der Himmel ist von Donner … Infido Cupido’, ‘Agitato da tempeste’; George Frideric Handel: Concerto grosso in C minor, op.6 no.8; Handel: Giulio Cesare in egitto : ‘Che sento? Oh dio! … Se pietà di me non senti’; Dario Costello: Sonata no.15 in D minor; Cavalli: Didone : ‘Re de’ Getuli altero … Il mio marito’; Hasse: Marc’Antonio e Cleopatra : ‘Morte col fiero aspetto’; Purcell: The Fairy Queen : ‘Chaconne – Dance for Chinese Man and Woman’; Purcell: Dido and Aeneas : ‘Oft she visits this lone mountain’, ‘Thy hand, Belinda … When I am laid in earth’. Anna Prohaska (soprano)/Il Giardino Armonico/Giovanni Antonini (conductor). Royal Albert Hall, London, Thursday 2 August 2018.

image=http://www.operatoday.com/Anna%20Prohaska%20Portrait%202.png image_description=Anna Prohaska [Photo © Harald Hoffmann] product=yes product_title=Prom 26: Dido and Cleopatra – Queens of Fascination product_by=A review by Mark Berry product_id=Above: Anna Prohaska [Photo © Harald Hoffmann]

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