Opera in 3 acts and a prologue.
Libretto by Nahum Tate based on Virgil's Aeneid.
Created at the London Boarding School in 1687 Les Nouveaux Caractères benefit from the support of the Ministry of Culture and Communication - DRAC Rhône-Alpes, the Regional Council of Rhône-Alpes and the City of Lyon.
The Orange Foundation and the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation are the main sponsors of the Aedes ensemble, which also benefits from the support of the Ministry of Culture and Communication - Regional Directorates of Cultural Affairs of Burgundy and Picardy, Mécénat Musical Société Générale, the Safran Foundation for Music, the Regional Councils of Burgundy and Picardy, the General Councils of Oise and Yonne, the City of Auxerre, Musique Nouvelle en Liberté (MNL), and the occasional assistance from the Fund for Musical Creation (FCM) and SPEDIDAM. The ensemble is in residence at the Fondation Singer - Polignac, at the Théâtre Impérial de Compiègne and at the Théâtre d'Auxerre. He is also the 2009 winner of the Bettencourt Prize for choral singing awarded by the Academy of Fine Arts.
For his first English-language opera, Purcell pays homage to Lully with a French overture. An exploration of impossible loves, Dido and Aeneas shines with its conciseness and unity in an extreme diversity of atmospheres and feelings. The richness of the music adjusted to the prosody of the English language makes this score an absolute masterpiece. Queen Dido will be portrayed by Isabelle Druet, winner of the "lyrical artist revelation" prize at the Victoires de la Musique 2010.
