Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626

English composer Henry Purcell’s (1659-1695) Dido and Aeneas was definitely performed by Josias Priest’s girls’ school of London in 1689, though it may have been composed much earlier and have a previous performance. Purcell’s only true opera, it tells the tragic story in three acts of Dido, the queen of Carthage, and her love for Aeneas of Troy. When they agree to marry, a sorceress plots the destruction of the marriage and Carthage by tricking Aeneas into believing that he must leave to create a new Troy. When he tells Dido this, she rejects him completely and forces him to leave despite his willingness to defy the gods and stay with her, and she dies soon after, though first singing the most well-known aria from the opera, “When I am laid in Earth,” also known as “Dido’s Lament.” This edition is by William Hayman Cummings (1831-1915) from 1889, when the opera first saw the revival that continues to this day. The set of score and parts and the choral score are available separately.Detailed Instrumentation: Vocal Soli (9 roles, SSSSSAATT): Chorus and Piano