Purcell: Dido & Aeneas
Fleur Barron, Matthew Brook, Giulia Semenzato, Tim Mead, Nicky Spence et al; La Nuova Musica/David Bates
Pentatone PTC 5187 032 57:33 mins
This Dido & Aeneas, for which David Bates directs La Nuova Musica, has its roots in a late-night Prom where big stars and a big acoustic dominated. The recording made four months later – with Fleur Baron as Dido and Matthew Brook as Aeneas stepping in – sizzles with energy. But Bates and his colleagues inhabit one world, while the title-role principals inhabit another.
The suspense, vibrancy and richly layered musical textures of chorus and band have no equal in the discography. The Witches’ scene is an exuberant Gothic festival, with creepily dilating long notes and weird sound effects – thumps, jangles, wind machine noises – tucked deftly into the score. ‘Gitter Ground/Oft she Visits’ is simply stunning: first, theorbos and harp spin Purcell’s opening minor third into an improvised Xacaras-styled introduction; then, the Gitter Ground’s repeated bass, slow-drip entries, and five-beat (clave) rhythmic patterning flow seamlessly into ‘Oft she Visits’, in which Hilary Cronin as the Second Woman swirls the clave rhythm into her solo and embellishments. Magic!
Into this sensibility parachute two opera-house stars. The gale-force power of Baron’s mezzo-soprano obliterates Dido’s fragility, for instance in the heavy sustained notes of ‘Ah Belinda’. Dido’s final lament, which should be a psychodrama of her imploding will to live, sags as the metric pulse dissolves, leaving only our wait for Baron to unleash her muscle. Bass Brook’s super-sized crescendos and freighted drama are likewise grander than the weak-kneed Aeneas merits. The problem is neither talent nor sound production – both are flawless throughout – but vocal casting. Still, the originality and brilliance of La Nuova Musica’s interpretation makes this Dido and Aeneas well worth acquiring. Berta Joncus
