A Muddled Operatic Reflection on Dido

Last night in Herbst Theatre the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra & Chorale (PBO) presented its only performance of the United States premiere of Dido’s Ghost, described in the program book as “An Opera in Three Acts incorporating Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas” (which also happens to be in three acts). The production turned out to be one of those projects that looked good on paper but bungled its way through a performance lasting for about 100 minutes. The composer was Errollyn Wallen, working with a libretto by Wesley Stace; and the production was staged by Frederic Wake-Walker.

Perhaps the best that can be said of Wallen and Stace is that they were not afraid of anachronism. However, while anachronism led Stace down a disappointingly inadequate, if not inchoate, approach to narrative, Wallen got the better part of the argument by adding an electric guitar (Marlon Martinez) and a drum kit (Allen Biggs) to the PBO instrumentalists. Just how, what, and why they contributed to Wallen’s score is not particularly clear; but one could certainly distinguish them from the PBO strings and harpsichord.

Certainly, the instrumental sonorities were far more engaging than just about anything having to do with the narrative. Having left Dido (soprano Nicole Heaston in the dual role of Dido and her sister Anna) to take her own life, Aeneas (bass-baritone Matthew Brook) has sailed to the Italian peninsula and now rules over what the program calls “Troia Nova.” He is married to Lavinia (mezzo Allison Cook), only to be visited by Anna, who has followed his path. For reasons never made particularly clear, Belinda (soprano Nardus Williams) also sails away from Carthage after Dido’s death and ends up in Aeneas’ Lavinium palace. (In the immortal words of Anna Russell, “I’m not making this up, you know!”)

The bottom line is that Stace provided Wallen with a rich cast of characters but never really figured out what to do with any of them. Thus, in the tradition of many Baroque operas, one tends to be better off enjoying the music than in trying to make sense of the plot. However, there is a sense of repetitiveness in both the music and the libretto which makes the whole affair (including the embedding of Purcell’s music) little more than aggravatingly tedious. To revive a phrase that I picked up as a student, this is an achievement that serves a well-needed gap.

The good news is that the Philharmonia Chorale, under the direction of Valérie Sainte-Agathe, could not have been in better form and, for the most part, did not have to get mixed into Wake-Walker’s muddled staging.