Dido and Aeneas

The Brisbane based Circa contemporary circus company has been touring the world for over 20 years and this collaboration, originally staged at QPAC, marks its first foray into a fully staged baroque opera. 

Dido and Aeneas was one of the hits of 18th century English composer Henry Purcell. The Director Yaron Lifschitz has transformed the work into a 70-minute adaptation that lends itself more to the tradition of ballet than opera.

The narrative, drawn from The Iliad, has been transferred to the 1940s. Aeneas, a Trojan Prince, flees the destruction of his home city, gets caught in a storm, and ends up in Carthage where he falls in love with Queen Dido. In this version Dido is a cabaret artist who transforms into a sorcerer. 

The production is beautiful to look at. The costumes are slick. The set comprises simple striking bright colours. Acrobats climb poles, form groups that lift up artists who tumble over and extend ropes in symmetry.

For those who have not yet enjoyed the artistry of Circa, this is a wonderful opportunity to drink in their unique style.

Lost in the eye candy was much of any sense of drama. Whilst the opera is in sung in English, sub-titles were required to decipher most of the lyrics. It was difficult to understand the story. 

One high profile recent principal of Opera Australia explained to me in the foyer a truism about the artform. In musical theatre the story is the most important aspect of the production. In opera he said the music and audio quality are the highest priority, then the story.

In this production it was choreography and music first with narrative the lowest priority.

There was limited engagement between the principals, who mainly sang directly to the audience.

The baroque score is a pleasure listen to without having any knockout hit tunes. It was beautifully sung by Anna Dowsley and as Dido and Nicholas Jones as Aeneas. The most engaging performance came from Gregory Brown as the sailor. At last we can understand a sung without sub-titles.

Despite the incredible drama behind the scenes in losing its artistic director and CEO Opera Australia is having a good Sydney summer season, presenting an array of classics and new interpretations of lesser known works.

The acting CEO Simon Militano told the after-show reception that the company has sold a healthy 80,000 plus tickets, which is one of their better results of late.

David Spicer

Photographer: Keith Saunders