PBO to Present Wallen’s “Opera in an Opera”

This month will conclude with a full-length semi-staged performance of Errollyn Wallen’s opera Dido’s Ghost. The Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra & Chorale (PBO) had originally planned to present two performances of this work; but, according to currently available information, there will now be only one. The work was created as a “sequel” to one of the most famous and earliest operas in history, Henry Purcell’s three-act Dido and Aeneas.

For those unfamiliar with the narrative, taken from the fourth book of Virgil’s Aeneid, Wallen, working with a libretto written by Wesley Stace, has embedded the entirety of Dido and Aeneas into Dido’s Ghost. Those familiar with Purcell’s work know that it concludes with the death Dido, the Queen of Carthage, while Aeneas sails north to what is now known as the Italian peninsula. He and his crew then become the ancestors of what history calls the Romans.

Soprano Nardus Williams in the role of Belinda (photograph by Genevieve Girling, courtesy of PBO)

If Carthage provided a haven for Aeneas and other survivors of the Trojan War, Dido’s Ghost begins with the Queen’s sister Anna, surviving a shipwreck on the Roman shore. Aeneas invites her to his palace, where, as “after-dinner entertainment,” they see a performance of Purcell’s opera (which has been embedded in Wallen’s score). If you are going to write a narrative for an opera, you should not be afraid of anachronism; and, in the performance of Dido’s Ghost, that anachronism includes an electric guitar and a drum kit rubbing shoulders with the historically-informed instruments performed by the PBO musicians.

Staging will be provided by Frederic Wake-Walker, and John Butt will conduct the performance. Soprano Nicole Heaston will assume the roles of both Dido and Anna. Aeneas will be sung by bass-baritone Matthew Brook. In the opera-in-an-opera soprano Nardus Williams will sing the role of Belinda, and mezzo Allison Cook will sing the sorceress. In Dido’s Ghost Cook will also appear as Lavinia. The PBO Chorale will be prepared by Valérie Sainte-Agathe.

The performance of this production will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, November 30. The venue will be Herbst Theatre, located on the first two floors of the Veterans Building on the southwest corner of Van Ness Avenue and McAllister Street. Tickets may be purchased online through a City Box Office event page. Ticket prices are $30, $50, $75, and $100.