What was the opera 'Dido and Aeneas' about?

Answer 1

Dido and Aeneas - probably the first important English Opera - deals with material covered in Books II and III of Vergil's Aeneid.

Aeneas, a Trojan prince en route to Italy where he will found a dynasty which will eventually give rise to Rome, is shipwrecked on the north African coast. There he meets Dido, the widowed Queen of Carthage. Dido and Aeneas fall in love, but Aeneas must follow his fate and leave for Italy. When Aeneas leaves Dido commits suicide.

The story is subtly different in the Opera from its original in the Aeneid, but any good opera guide will tell you the differences if you need to know them.

The music to the opera was composed by Henry Purcell - a major composer by any standards - but the libretto was by the Irish poet Nahum Tate.

Nahum Tate eventually became Poet Laureate, but in spite of this he was among the most ridiculed poets of the eighteenth century. He is made the butt of multiple jokes in Alexander Pope's Dunciad, and indeed, most of Tate's poetry is dreadful.

There are only two important exceptions. Tate wrote the libretto to Dido and Aeneas - one of the most perfect short opera librettos ever composed; he also composed the words to the Christmas carol While Shepherds watched ...

If you are only going to score twice .....