COC Free Concert - Dido and Aeneas: A Masque May 31, 2007

Toronto Masque Theatre
presents

Dido and Aeneas: A Masque
Toronto Masque Theatre Artistic Director Larry Beckwith gives a introduction to Henry Purcell's masterpiece, with help from choreographer and baroque dancer Marie-Nathalie Lacoursiere, a small group of singers and lutenist Terry McKenna. The circumstances around the first performances of Dido and Aeneas, in the mid-1680s, have long been debated by music historians.

The long-accepted view was that Purcell and his librettist Nahum Tate wrote it for performance at the girls’ school run by the famous dancer Josias Priest. More recently, evidence has come to light that the first performances were actually given at the court of James II. Whatever the case, Dido and Aeneas is a fascinating example of homegrown English music theatre, in the early 17th century masque tradition, mixed with many modern influences both domestic and foreign.

Though there are no records of Purcell having ever travelled beyond England, his knowledge of French musical and dramatic style (e.g. the contemporary tragedies lyriques of Lully and Charpentier) is particularly evident in the flow of Dido and Aeneas. Beckwith will host an entertaining, intimate, interactive and informative hour on the topic of one of the great English late Renaissance masterpieces.

Presented in collaboration with the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, Victoria University in the University of Toronto, on the occasion of the Renaissance Spring Festival 2007.

Official Website: http://www.coc.ca/performances/concerts_may07.html