Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas (Clarendon Paperbacks)
by Ellen T. Harris
Book Summary Information
Author: Ellen T. HarrisEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1990-01-18
ISBN: 0193152525
Number of pages: 212
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Book Reviews of Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas (Clarendon Paperbacks)
Book Review: A very comprehensive book about Purcell's opera, but not a light read
Summary: 5 Stars
Purcell's tragic opera 'Dido and Aeneas', set in Carthage after the Trojan Wars and based loosely on the story in Virgil's 'Aeneid', is widely regarded as one of the greatest operas by an English composer. This book is a very comprehensive study of the opera which I found extremely useful as an adjunct to a music course in which the opera was a set work. But I must stress at this point, that although this book contains some music notation examples, it is not a study score and if this is what is needed I would recommend the Norton Critical Scores edition as an alternative (Dido and Aeneas: An Opera (Norton Critical Scores)).
The information in Amazon's synopsis is accurate, in that the book does cover in detail the opera's social and historical context, the change in performance practices over time, and the work's performance history and critical reception. For anyone who wants a more detailed chapter listing, I have added one at the end of this review. I found both the series of illustrations taken from the various surviving sources, and the sections that compared and contrasted these sources to be particularly useful recently in helping me to understand a new and quite unusual production of the opera on DVD (Henry Purcell - Dido And Aeneas - A Choreographic Opera [2005] [DVD]). The section on discography is of very little use now as it is, quite understandably, massively out of date.
Ellen Harris's writing is clear and lucid throughout, although it is in the terse and academic style that you might expect from an Oxford University Press publication. The book is fully supported by footnotes referring to literature cited and by a full bibliography in the appendices. It is a book to study or dip into when needed, rather than one to read lightly. But it is the clearest and most comprehensive source of information about Purcell's opera that I have come across and I highly recommend it.
Chapters
1. First Performance: Place, Date and Artistic Climate
2. Text: Synopsis and History
3. Text: Literary Style
4. Tenbury Manuscript: Discrepancies between it and the printed editions
5. Tenbury Manuscript: Omissions (Prologue, Choruses and Dances)
6. Musical and Dramatic Structure
7. Musical Declamation
8. Ground Bass Techniques
9. Late eighteenth century performances
10. Nineteenth century revival
11. Twentieth century performance trends: re-orchestration, authenticity
12. Appendices and Bibliography
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