“Guildhall students show star quality in this confusing production.”
Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas is a gem of the Baroque musical cannon. A short opera based on an ancient star-crossed love meddled with by supernatural beings, it’s easy to follow compared to the three act romps opera is known for. Its score is an unfrilly affair and flows with an introspective early music style. Purcell originally created the opera for the students of Josias Priest’s school for girls, so it seems only fitting that the Guildhall School of Music would show the talents of their students in a new production directed by Oliver Platt.
The opera’s tale of betrayed love begins with Dido, dressed in a glittery outfit with a glass of white wine in hand, dancing her sorrows away to booming drum-and-bass tracks. Just when we think we’re strapping in for a night of Purcell with a Gen-Z twist, Dido suddenly gets kidnapped by a gang of frumpy villagers dressed in bonnets and clogs while waiting on her Uber. The peasants, who look an awful lot like the cast of Les Mis — with faces duly muddied — crown Dido as the queen of their cult and force her to fall in love with Aeneas. He’s also been kidnapped ostensibly, perhaps from a different club, it’s never really explored.
This new context works in opposition with Nahum Tate’s impassioned libretto. Oliver Platt’s folk horror spin makes motivations unclear, particularly in the work’s bloody end. While the jolly gallumphing of the peasant chorus in their larping rags begins to wear thin, the conniving witches chorus are immensely striking in Alisa Kalyanova’s pagan designs. Sonically the chorus is rich and full, igniting Purcell’s rollicking pastorales with brio. Manon Ogwen Parry’s maniacal take on lady-in-waiting Belinda is a highlight of the evening, wholly convincing as a fanatical ringleader and vocally confident as she hops through the baroque melodies, she never puts a foot wrong.
Karima El Demerdasch has real vocal power in her Dido. She harnesses her rage into vengeful bellows as she curses her fate, she laments with silken phrasing. Despite some slip-ups in her diction El Demerdasch undoubtedly has a starry quality and a flair for the dramatic. Joshua Saunders approaches Aeneas with a refreshing tenderness however his hushed take occasionally sees him lost in the action — particularly when the villagers get into their rustic antics. James Henshaw’s from the Academy of Ancient Music played alongside Guildhall School of Music players brings out the best of Purcell’s score in the intimate space. If only Oliver Platt’s directing managed to do the same for the opera itself.
Dido and Aeneas shows at Milton Court Theatre until 16th June. Tickets are available here.