Opera Lafayette’s ‘Dido’; November’s Early Music
By • October 23, 2025 0 369
An acclaimed presenter of French baroque repertoire, Opera Lafayette under founder Ryan Brown was known to cross musical borders, performing works of adjacent nations and periods. Now led by Brown’s successor Patrick Quigley, the company opened its 31st season this month with the 17th-century English opera “Dido and Aeneas” by Henry Purcell.
Two performances, on Oct. 16 and 18, took place in Washington, D.C., at Sixth & I. I attended the third, on Oct. 20 at New York’s El Museo del Barrio, where Quigley conducted the 19-piece chamber orchestra in the pit. The stage direction was by Corinne Hayes, with costume design by Lynly Saunders and lighting design by Christopher Brusberg.
Lisa Schlenker’s set was unexpected: a library-like roomful of Victorian furniture, occupied by blazered, plaid-skirted schoolgirls who lounged and studied as the musicians warmed up. Not long after the opening bars, the tempo accelerated and the “girls” — the nine-member chorus — moved furniture to make room for their “student show,” donning simple costumes.
This startling production design didn’t seem to represent a specific era. It immediately communicated “English girls’ boarding school,” however, which was indeed the setting for the only known performances of Purcell’s sole opera in the composer’s lifetime, in 1688 (or earlier) and 1689. As a program note by Quigley explains: “the opera returns in proportions close to its origins: a treble-voice cast with plenty of travesti” — that is, women playing men and men playing women.
The rambunctious chorus surrounds Hans Tashjian as the singing Sailor in Opera Lafayette’s production of “Dido and Aeneas.” Photo by Jennifer Packard.
Little is known about the work’s origins at a London school run by Josias Priest, “a well-established dancing master,” according to musicology professor Amanda Eubanks Winkler, who heads the music department at Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts. In a pre-performance talk, Dr. Eubanks Winkler stated that Chelsea, the location of Priest’s school, “was the most prominent site for schoolgirl operatics,” also known as balls, which were a type of public entertainment. Through the teachers, who likely performed too, the school was linked to court and stage. Intriguingly, she referred to “the tightrope these schoolgirl operas walked” in terms of their sexual and tragic content.
In the case of “Dido and Aeneas,” the surviving three-act narrative begins with the love affair and betrothal of Carthaginian Queen Dido, sung in the Opera Lafayette production by soprano Mary Elizabeth Williams, and Trojan Prince Aeneas, by male soprano Elijah McCormack; proceeds to Aeneas’ tortured decision to depart during a conjured storm, as directed by a witch disguised as Mercury (not in Virgil); and ends with the queen’s suicide.
Purcell set poet and playwright Nahum Tate’s libretto to music that is by turns florid, tuneful and tragic, with the orchestra smoothly shifting in response to Quigley’s baton. Harpsichordist Andrew Rosenblum, theorbo (a bass lute, more or less) player Dušan Balarin and percussionist Michelle Humphreys were key contributors to the period flavor.
Though at times the plaid skirts, simple dance steps and hurried furniture moving could be distracting, the chorus was exceptional, both on its own and in dialogue with Dido’s confidante Belinda, sung by soprano Chelsea Helm; with the Sorceress and Sailor, both sung by bass-baritone Hans Tashjian (head witches were typically played by a man); and with Dido. Just before the queen’s famed lament, powerfully delivered by Williams, she sings, “But death, alas, I cannot shun.” The chorus answers, “Death is now a welcome guest.”
The lighthearted scenes with the cackling coven and the jolly sailors recalled Shakespeare’s intermingling of genres. Fervent duets by Williams and McCormack rang the changes of longing, ambivalence, duty and betrayal. Completing the strong cast were soprano Kayleigh Sprouse and contralto Cecelia McKinley portraying Second Woman/First Witch and Second Witch/Spirit.
Next up in Opera Lafayette’s three-production season: “Queen of Hearts: A Valentine’s Day Revel,” featuring renowned period-ensemble conductor Nic McGegan, who will preside over “tender ballads, amorous duets, cheeky verses and bawdy drinking songs” on Feb. 12 in D.C. and on Feb. 14 in New York.
November holds more early music riches. As part of the Washington Bach Consort’s Noontime Cantatas series, soprano Julie Bosworth will share how content she is with her luck — in German, “Ich bin vergnügt mit meinem Glücke” — at 12:10 p.m. on Nov. 3 at St. Mark’s Capitol Hill and on Nov. 4 at the Church of the Epiphany. Then, at 7 p.m. on Nov. 14 at Live! at 10th & G and on Nov. 15 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Alexandria, the consort will celebrate the quadricentennial of composer Orlando Gibbons’s death with “The Cryes of London,” a program featuring voices and viols conducted by Artistic Director Dana Marsh.
Folger Consort will present “Virtuosos of Violin and Verse” at the Folger Shakespeare Library on Nov. 7 at 8 p.m.; Nov. 8 at 2 and 8 p.m.; and Nov. 9 at 2 p.m. Artistic Director Robert Eisenstein will lead a seminar about the program on Nov. 5 at 6 p.m. Curated with poet, author and actor Rose Solari, the program will offer songs and cantatas by Barbara Strozzi, 17th– and 18th-century works for violin and verse by 16th-century Italian poet Torquato Tasso.
Finally, Nov. 9 is a big day for early music in Georgetown. At 4 p.m., 12-voice Renaissance ensemble Stile Antico will perform at Dumbarton United Methodist Church. Over on O Street, the Georgetown Concert Series at St. John’s Episcopal Church will present Trio Medieval — Scandinavian-based women who sing “choral music, ancient and modern” — at 5 p.m.
