Didon et Enée

After the sack of Troy, Dido, queen of Carthage, welcomes the young Trojan prince Aeneas in search of a new land for his people. From their meeting arises a passionate love, but, compelled by the gods to pursue his destiny – the founding of Rome – Aeneas forsakes Dido, devastated by grief. Unable to overcome the loss of this pure love, Dido commits suicide, cursing Aeneas and thereby prophesying the eternal rivalry between Rome and Carthage.

More than sixteen centuries after the verses of the most famous Roman poet first told this tragic story, blending love and duty, Henry Purcell, with a libretto by Nahum Tate, seized upon this universal passion to compose one of the masterpieces of baroque music with his opera Dido and Aeneas.

Four centuries later, it is the turn of Spanish choreographer Blanca Li to take up the most moving passage of The Aeneid and the music composed by the English composer to create a score for ten dancers, a grandiose choreographic and visual spectacle, drawing from a millennia-old story timeless themes, and moving the heart and mind with Virgil’s poignant tragedy, Purcell’s airy music, and Blanca Li’s supple and subtle choreography.