A fresh look at a 370 year-old work
Depending on the work, depending on who is playing it and depending on how it is staged, Cavalli's operas - some of the oldest works in existence - can struggle to hold the attention of a modern audience. There are no such difficulties with this particular work - one of Cavalli's earliest operas first performed in 1641 - a version of the familiar story of the Fall of Troy and the love story of Dido and Aeneas, and with the production being in the hands of William Christie and his company, Les Arts Florissants, there are no concerns either about the musical interpretation of La Didone, which is staged with dramatic intensity by Clément Herve-Léger and sung exceptionally well by a youthful cast.
What makes La Didone rather more accessible than some works of early opera is the fine libretto by Giovanni Francesco Busenello, the librettist responsible for Monteverdi's groundbreaking L'Incoronazione di Poppea, an opera that daringly put real characters onto the...
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