Dido and Aeneas
Pitlochry Festival Theatre
Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas is one of operatic history’s charmers: a turgid tale of woe, misdirected pride and magical deception born of the elaborate English masque tradition; some great tunes, from jaunty sailors’ dances and mood-swinging recitative to Dido’s immortal Lament; and accessible enough to be tackled by the broadest abilities.
It was an inspired choice by Pitlochry Festival Theatre and Scots Opera Project to take their hour-long Dido out of doors, stage it in the venue’s diminutive woodland amphitheatre, in a production by Scots Opera Project director and singer David Douglas that chose simplicity over spectacle and a novel Scots/Gaelic translation by Michael Dempster and Marcas Mac an Tuairneir. Hugely against this summer’s odds, the sun shone for Saturday’s lunchtime opening performance. The Gods appeared to be with us.
They give Dido a rough ride, of course, the Queen of Carthage whose misjudgment of her lover Aeneas and her false manipulation by the Witches lead to her suicide, despite the heartfelt counselling of her friend Belinda. Soprano Emma Morwood, fresh from her sparkling last-minute call-up in the Edinburgh International Festival’s recent closing performance of Capriccio, steals the show in her central role, warmly engaging, packed with expressive fluidity and sung with piercing purity.
Everything and everyone revolves around her in a production that plays safe with the confined performance space, if in turn limiting in the scope it gives the supporting Community Chorus. Colleen Nicoll’s Belinda took time to open up on Saturday, but soon evolved into a glowing portrayal, as capable of bitter anguish as of gentleness and affection. The work, itself, portrays Aenaes rather two-dimensionally, which makes any singer’s job a challenge. Colin Murray plays it coolly, if a little too much at times.
The Witches, festooned with wiry twigs like wild dryads, are on fire, inspired by Ulrika Wutscher’s sneering and enticing Sorceress. Her sidekicks, a coven extracted largely from the main chorus, amplify the menace of their hateful actions. The complete chorus, facially animated and rigidly disciplined, compensate their tonal rawness with accuracy and efficiency. The reduced score is well-served by a diminutive trio of musicians – violinist Claire Telford, cellist Peter Harvey and keyboardist/musical director Andrew Johnston – acting like a rear wheel drive from its hindmost position and remarkably stylish.
To those familiar with the synopsis, the often indistinctness of the translated text on Saturday probably mattered little. In the end, Purcell’s music and this idyllic natural setting were, like the weather, a much-welcomed ray of sunshine.
Ken Walton
(Photo: Fraser Band)
Runs till 15 Sept at Pitlochry Festival Theatre. Full information at www.pitlochryfestivaltheatre.com