Customer Reviews

Henry Purcell: Dido and Aeneas

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

From the stirring overture to the solemn final choir, I have never heard this opera in such clarity and beauty. Just listening to this you will have a whole baroque stage production happening in your mind. It's exciting when it needs to be and infinitely sad when called for. The cast is stunning, with Simone Kermes as Dido and the wonderful choir taking the well deserved spot-light. Deborah York is a great Belinda.

The conductor Teodor Currentzis managed to bring orchestra, choir and soloist to such live and drama, that I can not stop listening to it. I've heard it several times performed live by very highly respected ensembles (Berliner Symphonie Orchester, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Lautten Compagney Berlin), but never so riveting as this recording. Five stars for this!

This album is a dreadful misfire. I *love* Simone Kermes and could hardly bear to finish listening to the set. The lion's share of the blame falls squarely on the conductor, who manages to make this glorious music sound downright ugly. The performance alienates from the very first bars of the overture -- the sound brittle, the strings harsh, it almost sounds like a willfully unmusical rendition of the witch's music. Kermes's voice is rather exposed and her reading of the role is affecting, but she really doesn't have a fighting chance in this company. To be avoided at all costs. Or, as the French would say, à fuir -- a recording to flee from. This opera has far too illustrious a recorded legacy to be sullied by the memory of this wretched mess.