To round out this mini survey of the early discography of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas I’m going to fast forward a bit to the 1995 recording by Tafelmusik.  The most striking thing about this version is the very small instrumental ensemble; two violins, viola, violincello and harpsichord led by Jeanne Lamon.  One quickly gets the feel for how they are going to perform with a very fast and rhythmically sprung overture.

It’s perhaps a surprise then that Dido is sung by a very dark mezzo with some vibrato; Jennifer Lane. who also doubles up as the Sorceress.  It does make for a very marked contrast with Ann Monyious’ quite bright Belinda.  It also sounds like the full Tafelmusik Choir is used which is a much bigger group than Parrott uses.  It’s also interesting to hear a young Russell Braun as a very characterful Aeneas.

To my ear, Lane sounds better suited to the Sorceress than to Dido.  She sings it fairly straight but the voice is sinister enough.  There’s a bit of cackling from the witches; Shari Saunders, who doubles as Second Woman, and Meredith Hall, who also sings the Spirit, but it’s not overdone.  There’s no attempt at any effects for the Spirit and Benjamin Butterfield sings the Sailor very fast but with no sign of inebriation or Mummerzetting.  Having said that Lane’s is an unusual voice for Dido, it must be said that she does sing the final scene quite beautifully.

I’m not sure where this was recorded as documentation for this disk is hard to come by but it sounds like a “big” acoustic; maybe Trinity St.Paul’s.  Alternatively it may just be the soundtrack for the film collaboration between Tafelmusik and Mark Morris which features the same cast.  Certainly the record cover would suggest that.  If that is the case the sound quality is way better than the DVD’s Dolby 2.0.  Whatever the provenance it’s more resonant than the other versions discussed in this mini-series.  But it’s all clear enough and with generally rather fast tempi it doesn’t drag at all.

Unusually there are actually a few bonus tracks of other Purcell stage works included.  The record was released on now defunct CBC Records as SMCD 5147 and it is still available digitally in MP3 and CD quality FLAC formats. 

So that’s as far as I intend to take this survey.  Dido and Aeneas has a huge discography.  Pretty much every HIP outfit has recorded it since 1995 and the panoply of Dido’s is distinguished with Maria Ewing, Jessye Norman, Véronique Gens, Susan Graham and Sarah Connolly being just a few of those who have recorded the title role.  As I wrtote in the first part of this series there are six reviews of video recordings on the video recording page if you want more versions to explore.