This spring Yale Baroque Opera Project returns to present Henry Purcell’s, Dido and Aeneas in a new production!
In an opera first performed at an English girl’s school in 1689 (and maybe earlier at Charles II’s court), composer Henry Purcell and librettist Nahum Tate retell Virgil’s love story of Dido, queen of Carthage, and the Trojan hero Aeneas. A new prologue by directors Grant Herreid and Toni Dorfman, with music by Purcell and Francesco Cavalli, recounts Aeneas’ escape from the ruins of Troy, the Trojans’ sea voyage across the Mediterranean toward Italy, their shipwreck on the Carthaginian coast, and their gracious, poignant welcome by Dido and her ladies.
Seventeen undergraduate singers, accompanied by a band of period instruments led by Herreid, bring the extraordinary music of Dido and Aeneas to life. Two performances only. Admission is free.
Friday, April 26 at 7:30PM
Sunday, April 28 at 3 PM
Tickets can be found at: Dido and Aeneas by The Yale Baroque Opera Project Tickets, Multiple Dates | Eventbrite
The opera will be performed in English with English supertitles.
Music Director: Grant Herreid
Stage Director: Toni Dorfman
Ellen Rosand, Executive Director | Grant Herreid, Artistic Director
The Yale Baroque Opera Project (YBOP) was founded in 2007 to introduce Yale students to historical and aesthetic studies related to Italian opera from the 17th and early 18th centuries. Each year, Yale undergraduates audition and enroll in a course that culminates in a fully staged production of a baroque opera. After months of music coaching and staging rehearsals, students have the unique opportunity to perform in a professionally directed and designed production at the University Theater in New Haven, Connecticut.
YBOP was originally funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation through a Distinguished Achievement Award granted to Ellen Rosand, George A. Saden Professor Emeritus of Music at Yale University.