Purcell: Dido and Aeneas; Music for "The Gordian Knot Unty'd"

Purcell: Dido and Aeneas; Music for "The Gordian Knot Unty'd"

Purcell: Dido and Aeneas; Music for "The Gordian Knot Unty'd"
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CD Details

Edition: Music CD
Format: Import
CD Release Date: 1994-09-27
Music Label: Harmonia Mundi Fr.
Soundtracks:
  1. Dido and Aeneas: Overture
  2. Dido and Aeneas: Act I: The Palace
  3. Dido and Aeneas: Act I: The Palace
  4. Dido and Aeneas: Act I: The Palace
  5. Dido and Aeneas: Act I: The Palace
  6. Dido and Aeneas: Act I: The Palace
  7. Dido and Aeneas: Act I: The Palace
  8. Dido and Aeneas: Act I: The Palace
  9. Dido and Aeneas: Act II, Scene I: The Cave
  10. Dido and Aeneas: Act II, Scene I: The Cave
  11. Dido and Aeneas: Act II, Scene I: The Cave
  12. Dido and Aeneas: Act II, Scene I: The Cave
  13. Dido and Aeneas: Act II, Scene II: The Grove
  14. Dido and Aeneas: Act II, Scene II: The Grove
  15. Dido and Aeneas: Act II, Scene II: The Grove
  16. Dido and Aeneas: Act II, Scene II: The Grove
  17. Dido and Aeneas: Act II, Scene II: The Grove
  18. Dido and Aeneas: Act II, Scene II: The Grove
  19. Dido and Aeneas: Act II, Scene II: The Grove
  20. Dido and Aeneas: Act III, Scene I: The Ships
  21. Dido and Aeneas: Act III, Scene I: The Ships
  22. Dido and Aeneas: Act III, Scene I: The Ships
  23. Dido and Aeneas: Act III, Scene I: The Ships
  24. Dido and Aeneas: Act III, Scene I: The Ships
  25. Dido and Aeneas: Act III, Scene II: The Palace
  26. Dido and Aeneas: Act III, Scene II: The Palace
  27. Dido and Aeneas: Act III, Scene II: The Palace
  28. Dido and Aeneas: Act III, Scene II: The Palace
  29. Music For 'The Gordian Knot Unty'd'
  30. Music For 'The Gordian Knot Unty'd'
  31. Music For 'The Gordian Knot Unty'd'
  32. Music For 'The Gordian Knot Unty'd'
  33. Music For 'The Gordian Knot Unty'd'
  34. Music For 'The Gordian Knot Unty'd'
  35. Music For 'The Gordian Knot Unty'd'
  36. Music For 'The Gordian Knot Unty'd'

Music reviews of Purcell: Dido and Aeneas; Music for "The Gordian Knot Unty'd"

Music Review: Excitement, Entertainment, Theatrics
Rating: 5 Stars

Henry Purcell (1659 – 1695): Dido and Aeneas. Opera in 3 Acts. Music for “The Gordian Knot Unty’d”. Performed by: Lorraine Hunt[-Lieberson] (Dido); Lisa Saffer (Belinda); Donna Deam (Second Woman); Ellen Rabiner (Sorceress); Christine Brandes (First Witch and Spirit); Ruth Rainero (Second Witch); Michael Dean (Aeneas); Paul Elliott (A Sailor); The Choir of Clare College, Cambridge; The Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, conducted by Nicholas McGegan.
Recorded in September, 1993, at Skywalker Sound, Nicasio, California. Harmonia Mundi HMU 907110. Total time: 60’09”.

The number of recordings of Purcell’s ever-popular mini-opera “Dido and Aeneas” has increased greatly over the past years, and almost all of the best-known period-performance conductors have tried their hand at it: Ivor Bolton, William Christie (twice), Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Richard Hickox, Christopher Hogwood, Rene Jacobs, Nicholas McGegan, Andrew Parrott (twice), Trevor Pinnock … That alone gives evidence of how fascinating and attractive this music must be and puts a big question mark behind the comments of the reviewer who thinks that Purcell was not a good composer. In fact, of course, Purcell was a genius, combining his English heritage in a brilliant way with the latest influences from Italy (although he probably only knew these second-hand). Of course this work, written in the 1680’s, cannot be compared with music (and certainly not with opera!) from a later period; it has to be taken for its own value as it stands.

Personally, I own three CD versions of the piece, of which Nicholas McGegan’s is, in my opinion, the most attractive. But let me take things in chronological order. The oldest “Dido and Aeneas” in my collection is Andrew Parrott’s first recording, made in 1981 for the Chandos label and still kept available in the Chaconne series (CHAN 0521). This disk kept me happy for many years, its disadvantages being mainly peripheral: the analogue sound is not as good as many later digital recordings, and the thin booklet only offers a summary of the plot but not a libretto. Emma Kirkby as Dido is at the zenith of her career and sounds wonderful, although it has been suggested, quite plausibly, that her voice is a little too innocent and girlish for this role. She is supported here by the cr?me de la cr?me of the British early music scene: David Thomas as Aeneas has seldom filled out a role so well; Judith Nelson as Belinda has here not yet lost the freshness of her small but very pure soprano voice; Jantina Noorman as the sorceress can send chills down anybody’s spine; and the minor characters (Emily van Evera and Rachel Bevan as the witches, Judith Rees as the Second Woman and Tessa Bonner as the spirit) are all, to my ears at any rate, quite delightful, with the witches deliberately singing in a thoroughly ugly and hateful manner; only Rachel Bevan’s second role as the sailor comes over as a trifle weak.

After many years, I decided to obtain a newer version of the piece and purchased, within months of each other, the version by Nicholas McGegan (1993) and that by Emmanuelle Haim (Virgin Classics, 2003). Both are absolutely tremendous in their way, albeit quite different in their approach. French conductress Emmanuelle Haim is, as far as I can tell, strictly historical in her instrumentation, using recorders, a viola da gamba and an organ as well as the usual strings, winds and harpsichords. On the vocal side, she has gathered an ensemble of accomplished opera singers around her who are, to my mind at any rate, not early music specialists. Susan Graham gives a full-bodied Dido, absolutely first-class from a singer’s point of view, but with plenty of vibrato, something that has been the topic of debate in period performance circles for many years. Ian Bostridge, a tenor, was an unusual choice for Aeneas; his singing is, as ever, totally convincing, although I nonetheless found myself wishing that he had been a bass-baritone. Felicity Palmer, contralto, as the Sorceress produces some incredibly throaty tones that take a little getting used to, but in the end I think she was a great choice for this role. Camilla Tilling, Cecile de Boever, David Daniels and Paul Agnew are all great singers and fill their parts out with just the right amount of feeling and sensibility. Only the two witches were, I felt, too “normal” in comparison with other performances and did not really make my hair stand on end.

Nicholas McGegan’s offering has the edge as far as excitement goes: his tempi are, as usual, very fast, and it seems that on occasion he sacrifices “authenticity”, whatever that may be in this context, to entertainment. And entertaining his performance really is! Intending to compare the first act of his version with Haim’s, I found myself going on to listen to the whole opera again for the sheer pleasure of these wonderfully fresh voices and the lively orchestral playing – and that despite the fact that McGegan uses a comparatively large choir and a comparatively small orchestra, making do without the recorders, the viola da gamba and the organ. He also has the Second Woman sing some of Belinda’s text, which personally I did not find disturbing because Lisa Saffer and Donna Deam appear to form a magnificent team, their voices complementing each other quite ideally. The star of the performance is, of course, Lorraine Hunt[-Lieberson], who is here able to bring in the whole expressivity of her range and whose “early music” style I find quite incomparable. Michael Dean’s Aeneas I also found to be eminently enjoyable: not as polished as Ian Bostridge, perhaps, but from the point of view of timbre “just so”. Bravo! The witches and the sailor distort their voices in a highly entertaining manner: this is not just “opera”, not just “early music”, this is really “theater”!

And that is where I reach the conclusion of this long review. I think Mme. Haim’s CD is certainly the most polished of the three I have and would be most likely to satisfy lovers of opera and beautiful singing. But Nicholas McGegan’s has the edge as far as excitement, entertainment and theatrics is concerned. The recorded sound is equally good on both CDs. Choose your preference!
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