“Dido Reimagined” is a new performance project sparked by the famous “Dido’s Lament” from Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas. Brentano Quartet invited composer Melinda Wagner and librettist Stephanie Fleischmann to respond to this aria, and more broadly to the story of Queen Dido, with a large-scale work performed with soprano Dawn Upshaw, together with Purcell’s aria and other selections from Baroque opera.

• Dawn Upshawsoprano
• Brentano Quartetstring quartet

• Serena Canin violin
• Mark Steinberg violin
• Misha Amory viola
• Nina Lee cello

Programme

Henry Purcell | Oh let me weep, from The Fairy Queen, Z629 (arr. Mark Steinberg)

Henry Purcell | Fantasia No. 5 for Four Viols in B-flat Major, Z736

Matthew Locke | Suite No. 2 for Four Viols in D Minor/Major: Fantasia

John Dowland | Come again, sweet love doth now invite (arr. Stephen Prutsman)

Matthew Locke | Suite No. 2: Courante

John Dowland | Can she excuse my wrongs (arr. Prutsman)

Matthew Locke | Suite No. 2: Ayre

John Dowland | Weep you no more, sad fountains (arr. Prutsman)

Matthew Locke | Suite No. 2: Saraband

Thomas Tomkins | Alman

William Byrd | Though Amaryllis dance in green

Robert Johnson | The Witty Wanton

Henry Purcell | Fantasia No. 7 for Four Viols in C Minor, Z738

Henry Purcell | When I am laid in earth (Dido’s Lament) from Dido and Aeneas, Z626

Intermission

Melinda Wagner | Dido Reimagined – a response to Purcell’s “Lament”

Download Programme PDF