By Matilda M, Year 10 Journalist Lead

For several months now the Music department has been preparing for the production of Dido and Aeneas which was performed at Notting Hill and Ealing, and in the antechapel at Trinity College Cambridge.

The opera was written for a girls school in 1689 by Henry Purcell. It was intended for a smaller and intimate audience which contrasts what most composers intend their audience to be. The opera is relatively short, only about an hour long, however it still managed to feature highly intense emotions and some of the best music Purcell has written. The opera ( as it is shorter compared to many others) therefore focuses on personal tragedies and elaborate storytelling rather than many other operas. Moreover the main characters’ personal identities are explored in Dido and Aeneas, such as Dido’s tragic lament ‘when I am laid’, more than other characters in similar operas, which is why many really enjoy the opera. 

Notting Hill and Ealing performed the opera very similarly to the way Purcell intended it to be, for a smaller and more intimate audience, and with the same instruments. One of the students who watched it said ‘they loved the texture of the music, and it was amazing’. One of the singers who performed in the chorus of the opera also says, ‘It was a thoroughly enjoyable and enriching experience.’ Personally, one of the best parts in the lead up to the opera was starting to rehearse with the orchestra, as it added depth to the chamber choir and properly allowed the choir’s music to flourish.