Last night saw the first of two performances of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas at Trinity-St. Paul’s. It was a collaboration between the UoT Schola Cantorum and the Theatre of Early Music though where one starts and the other ends I’m none too sure! Before the Purcell we got a fine performance of an early solo violin piece; Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber’s Passacaglia in G Minor played by Adrian Butterfield.

The “selling point” of the Purcell production is that it was directed and choreographed by veteran dancer Evelyn Hart and Bill Coleman who also performed as doubles for Dido and Aeneas.  In concept it’s a bit like the 1995 Mark Morris film but rather better in many ways.  Trinity-St.Paul’s isn’t an easy place to do opera.  There’s no scenery handling capability, no wings, limited lighting, no surtitles, a rather cramped stage and an acoustic which is great for choruses and some types of instrumental music but which tends to “disappear” solo voices.  Some of these can’t be overcome but this production coped quite well with the rest.  Even the lack of surtitles wasn’t a problem as diction was good enough for any audience member with a reasonable idea of the story.

It was obviously going to be pretty abstract.  There’s no set and everyone is dressed in black with a few accoutrements like a crown for Dido and a staff/wand for the Sorceress.  There’s lots of dance.  It’s not just Holt and Coleman.  Sometimes the singers dance too and the chorus is kept very busy.  They are arguably too busy.  It’s a big chorus and they do lots of fairly straightforward routines which make the stage look very crowded and a bit confused.  Holt and Coleman’s choreography for themselves though is inventive and very well executed.  The space is used well with entrances mostly being made through the hall and the Spirit singing from the gallery.

Having dance doubles doesn’t leave Dido (Sinead White) and Aeneas (Alexander Dobson) much to do other than sing.  In fact it might have been simpler just to have them do that rather than try to inject them into the action.  They sing pretty well.  Dobson’s Aeneas is bluff and straightforward and he really only has a couple of effective lines, especially as the whole boar’s head bit is cut.  It gets the job done.  White is on the light side as Dido.  She sings accurately and with feeling but I would have preferred more tone colour contrast between her and the other sopranos who are young, light and bright.  They are good though.  Jennifer Wilson has the right touch as Belinda and I particularly liked Jane Fingler’s energetically sung and acted First Woman.

Unsurprisingly the witches stole the show.  Counter-tenor Ryan McDonald was just campy enough as the Sorceress without going over the top and sang as strongly as anybody.  He was well supported by Peter Koniers and Dasha Terschenko as highly kinetic Witches with a really nice cameo from Ivan Vutev as the Spirit.  Jacob Thomas was a suitably bucolic sailor.  The small period instrument ensemble was suitably idiomatic and conductor Daniel Taylor kept things together nicely.

All in all a satisfying Dido and Aeneas that deals with the limitations of the hall pretty well.  Using dance as a central element is an interesting idea though maybe in this case a little less might be more effective.  Not a bad way to spend an hour.

There’s one more performance tonight at 7.30pm.

Photo credits: Alexandra Delle Donne