Michael Spyres - Purcell: Dido & Aeneas (CD)

Dido's famous lament, 'When I am laid in earth' has long featured in Joyce DiDonato's repertoire - and she has triumphed as the tragic Queen of Carthage in Berlioz's Les Troyens - but it was in early 2024 that she first performed Purcell's opera Dido and Aeneas in it's entirety. With Il Pomo d'Oro, conductor Maxim Emelyanychev, and a cast including Fatma Said as Dido's companion Belinda, DiDonato toured extensively in Europe. This recording was made in Essen's Philharmonie, where Michael Spyres took the role of Aeneas. The two stars have been through this all before, as Spyres sang Énée to DiDonato's Didon in the prizewinning Erato recording of Les Troyens, conducted in 2017 by the late John Nelson.

Track List:

Disc: 1

1. Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626: Overture
2. Act 1: "Shake the Cloud from Off Your Brow" (Belinda)
3. Act 1: "Banish Sorrow, Banish Care" (Chorus)
4. Act 1: "Ah! Belinda, I Am Pressed with Torment" (Dido)
5. Act 1: "Grief Increases By Concealing" (Belinda, Dido)
6. Act 1: "When Monarchs Unite, How Happy Their State" (Chorus)
7. Act 1: "Whence Could So Much Virtue Spring" (Dido, Belinda)
8. Act 1: "Fear No Danger to Ensue" (Belinda, Second Woman, Chorus)
9. Act 1: "See, See Your Royal Guest Appears" (Belinda, Aeneas, Dido)
10. Act 1: "Cupid Only Throws the Dart" (Chorus)
11. Act 1: "If Not for Mine, for Empire's Sake" - "Pursue Thy Conquest, Love" (Aeneas, Belinda)
12. Act 1: "To the Hills and the Vales" (Chorus)
13. Act 1: The Triumphing Dance
14. Act 2: Prelude for the Witches - "Wayward Sisters" - "Harm's Our Delight" - (Sorceress, First Witch, Chorus)
15. Act 2: "The Queen of Carthage" - "Ho Ho Ho" (Sorceress, Chorus)
16. Act 2: "Ruin'd Ere the Set of Sun" - "Ho Ho Ho" (First Witch, Second Witch, Sorceress, Chorus)
17. Act 2: "But, Ere We This Perform" (First Witch, Second Witch)
18. Act 2: "In Our Deep Vaulted Cell" (Chorus)
19. Act 2: Echo Dance of the Furies
20. Act 2: Ritornelle
21. Act 2: "Thanks to These Lonesome Vales" (Belinda, Chorus)
22. Act 2: "Oft She Visits This Loved Mountain" (Second Woman)
23. Act 2: "Behold, Upon My Bended Spear" (Aeneas, Dido)
24. Act 2: "Haste, Haste to Town" (Belinda, Chorus)
25. Act 2: "Stay, Prince!" (Spirit, Aeneas)
26. Act 3: "Come Away, Fellow Sailors" (Sailor, Chorus)
27. Act 3: The Sailors' Dance
28. Act 3: "See, See, the Flags and Streamers Curling" (Sorceress, First Witch, Second Witch)
29. Act 3: "Our Next Motion Must Be to Storm" (Sorceress)
30. Act 3: "Destruction's Our Delight" (Chorus)
31. Act 3: The Witches' Dance
32. Act 3: "Your Counsel, All Is Urg'd in Vain" (Dido, Belinda, Aeneas)
33. Act 3: "But Death, Alas! I Cannot Shun" (Dido)
34. Act 3: "Great Minds Against Themselves Conspire" (Chorus)
35. Act 3: "Thy Hand, Belinda" (Dido)
36. Act 3: Dido's Lament. "When I Am Laid in Earth" (Dido)
37. Act 3: "With Drooping Wings" (Chorus)