William Christie conducts La Didone by Cavalli
Didone
Opera in a prologue and three acts by Francesco Cavalli (1602 - 1676)
Libretto by Giovanni Francesco Busenello after Virgil's 'Aeneid'
First perfomance...
Didone
Opera in a prologue and three acts by Francesco Cavalli (1602 - 1676)
Libretto by Giovanni Francesco Busenello after Virgil's 'Aeneid'
First perfomance in Venice, Teatro San Cassiano, 1641
Les Arts Florissants, William Christie (musical direction)
Clément Hervieu-Léger (stage direction)
Anna Bonitatibus (Didone), Kresimir Spicer (Enea), Claire Debono Venere (Iride, Damigella III), Tehila Nini Goldstein (Creusa, Giunone, Damigella II, Dama II), Katherine Watson (Cassandra, Damigella I, Dama III), Mariana Rewerski (Fortuna, Anna, Dama I), Xavier Sabata (Iarba), Terry Wey (Ascanio, Amore, Cacciatore), Valerio Contaldo (Corebo, Eolo, Cacciatore), Joseph Cornwell (Acate, Sicheo, Pirro), Mathias Vidal (Ilioneo, Mercurio), Maria Streijffert (Ecuba), Victor Torres (Anchise, Un Vecchio)
Recorded at the Caen Theatre in 2011
Francesco Cavalli (1602-1676) was probably the greatest opera composer in seventeenth-century Venice, where the new musical form found a particularly promising home. Cavalli made an enormous contribution with over forty works for the stage. Premiered in Venice in 1641, La Didone is based on Virgil's Aeneid. The subject is familiar: the doomed love of Dido, queen of Carthage, and Aeneas, the hero who fled Troy and later founded Rome.