Dido & Aeneas: A timeless tale of love, betrayal and more comes alive in Bengaluru

Experience an exciting cross-border collaboration on the famous English opera 'Dido & Aeneas' in Bengaluru this weekend
(L-R) A glimpse into the rehearsals; (clockwise) Jonas Olsson, Maria Forsström and Sofia Winiarski
(L-R) A glimpse into the rehearsals; (clockwise) Jonas Olsson, Maria Forsström and Sofia Winiarski
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English composer Henry Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas , based on Book IV of Roman poet Virgil’s epic The Aeneid, is all set to be the weekend’s talk of the town as Legato School Of Music, Bangalore International Centre and The Lewis Foundation of Classical Ballet all come together to narrate this tale of ‘love, passion, betrayal and death’. We chat with Sweden-based opera singer Maria Forsström (who will be essaying the role of Dido) and Swedish conductor Sofia Winiarski.

Our discussion begins with Maria Forsström, “I would say that if you’ve never been to an opera performance before, I think Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas is the ideal way to start because it’s very short. It’s like one hour. It’s got short solos, duets and short choral pieces in it. It’s easily accessible for a person who is not used to opera. It’s colourful. It’s easy to absorb the art form and then from then on you want to go on to longer pieces. I would advise any new beginner to opera to go for the show,” she says.

The literary work is known to not exist in its entirety with parts of the score, including the Prologue, the end of the Act II Grove scene and various dances being lost. We learn from Maria that the absence of these missing pieces would not affect the audience’s understanding of the larger part of the opera that will be staged. “The thing is, this Prologue doesn’t belong to the rest of the opera in terms of the narrative because it’s an idealised and quite two-dimensional characteristic of a ‘shepherd and shepherdess’ play — which is a type of emblematic entertainment form in European baroque. France had similar kinds of emblematic entertainment pieces with roles like the dawn, night, shepherd and shepherdess and it was always about love, spring and so on. Those were not integrated parts of the performance per se. So, this could be lifted out as just lovely entertainment. Also, we put it before the opera, so we’ve put it in as a way of warming up people,” she explains. Performing an interesting twist is the South Indian percussions that have been added into the arrangement. “The audience will see a chenda alongside the other instruments! This has never been done in Europe,” Maria adds. Additionally, ballet performers from The Lewis Foundation of Classical Ballet will also add to the experience of this retelling of Dido & Aeneas.

“We have a small ensemble. But as this a great piece of opera, because it is flexible, we will have a group of five string players, so two violins, viola, cello and bass; and a continuo as well. In a way, it’s similar to how jazz music works, because you have a bass and that is very important. We also have guitar and percussion, which I’m extremely excited about. What’s also great about Dido is that it has a lot of choral vocals. So, we will have a lot of very powerful parts with a lot of the choir which is 45 strong,” Sofia concludes.

Given the performance an interesting twist Maria says that the audience will witness South Indian percussions to become part of the arrangements. Talking about the same, she adds, “The audience will see a chenda alongside the other instruments! This has never been done in Europe.” Additionally, ballet performers from The Lewis Foundation Of Classical Ballet will also add to the experience of this retelling of Dido & Aeneas

Sofia elucidates on the arrangement further. “What's also great about Dido is that it has a lot of choral vocals. So, we will have a lot of very powerful parts with a lot of choir. And then, of course, the soloists — where Maria is, Dido, the main star. So, it's very dynamic in that sense,” Sofia explains.

Maria chimes in again to give further details on the characters that will be brought to life through vocals. “There are four main characters —  There are Dido and Aeneas, both mythological-historical characters from the Greek-Roman mythology. There is also Belinda, Dido’s first lady and the sorceress. Why the sorceress? Well because in every good story, there needs to be a moment of conflict, and man will we have conflict!” she teases us. 

Produced by Bengaluru’s very own Jonas Olsson, the performance has been in its rehearsal stage since the past seven months with musicians coming together for a session in September. Ahead of the show, the team promises us that it will be a truly unique musical experience melded with intense emotions!

Entry free. January 24, 7 pm onwards. At Bangalore International Centre, Domlur

Mail: pranav.shriram@newindianexpress.com

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