winter 2007 - Concord Academy

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Dido and Aeneas:CA’s OperaticPremiereby Nick Morgan ’07Caleb WertenbakerCONCORD ACADEMY MAGAZINE WINTER 200732On a campus that seems a New England prototype—simple,quiet, unadorned—the drama ofthe baroque disturbed the calm, filtering acrossConcord Academy as winter descended. Singerstrained to belt out complex arias. Pianists sharpenedthemselves for the harpsichord, while othermusicians adapted to seventeenth-century techniques.In its headquarters in the top floor of theStudent Health and Athletic Center, the DanceCompany began to piece together a dynamicwork, a movement of Henry Purcell’s baroqueopera, Dido and Aeneas.The Dance Company, comprising eleven ofCA’s most accomplished dancers, execute modernand period dance with equal specificity and spontaneity.They are a creative, thoughtful troupe,and this year they are creating movement toenrich and enliven Purcell’s aged opera, which wasfirst performed in 1689. Sung by students, playedby student musicians, and brought to life byyoung dancers, Dido has caught the attention of aschool that routinely stages performances rarelyfound at the high school level. Opera remainsuniquely ambitious, and Purcell’s work will be thefirst full opera ever performed by CA students.Dido and Aeneas begins with a shriek—actually thehowl of brazed chamber music—and also endswith a shriek. Based on a selection from Vergil’sAeneid, the opera follows Dido, the queen ofCarthage, her lover Aeneas, who is shipwrecked inCarthage, and the tragic story of their love, a storytinged throughout with magic, a love stymied bysorceresses and depraved witches.When that shriek pierces the Dance and Perform -ance Studio, it will signal the culmination ofa year’s worth of work. “The yearlong processallows us the time to internalize the Dido landscapeand then to theatricalize, to projectwhat fills us,” said dance teacher Richard Colton.“To bring Dido and Aeneas to life, in all itsfascinating contradictions, is our hope.”
Vergil is omnipresent in the opera, today morethan ever: a new translation of The Aeneid byRobert Fagles has reignited interest in the Romanpoet whose work has too often been left in theshadow of Homer. The music and dance programs’joint endeavor capitalizes on the newvogue for Vergil: Concord Academy will see thebaroque opera based on a Roman poem performedwith modern daring. For example, theopening storm and background information willbe presented as a prelude, staged in the squashcourts, one floor below the dance studio. TheDance Company, at Dido previews, already hasrevealed a militaristic dance from the prelude,with harsh vocalizations and severe footwork.This strikingly modern opening, through the helpof costumed dancers, will transition to the initialscene of the classical opera.To Colton, the modern prelude provides anopportunity to put the opera in context: “Purcellbased his libretto on book four of Vergil’s Aeneid,the Dido incident. Our prelude and epilogue willjump off of books three and six, where Vergilgives background to the Dido incident and followsits aftermath.” In a sense, modernizing theprelude was Colton’s statement about Purcell andhow extreme his work was, in his time. “We willuse contemporary music in these sections, whichwill create an interesting frame for Purcell’s 1690score,” he said. “We are hoping it will bring to thefore its radical nature.”Dido may have been destined for ConcordAcademy: Purcell originally wrote it for a girls’school (which Concord Academy was for half acentury), and it remains the only classical operawith an English libretto (which makes singingand understanding feasible for opera novices).When Music Program Director Keith Danielarrived at Concord Academy in 1978, he foundyellowing copies of Dido’s choral music amongthe department’s many papers. He assumed theopera had been produced by students before hisarrival, but learned that CA had never staged afull opera. Nearly thirty years later, the thoughtof staging the piece lingered, and Daniel decidedthe time was right: he had strong singers, apowerful Dance Company, and the necessaryfinancial support, thanks to donations fromseveral Concord alumnae/i and family membersspecifically earmarked for this operatic production.Dido and Aeneas will fulfill one of Daniel’sdreams. “Con duct ing opera is the height of theconducting experience,” he explained.Throughout rehearsals, it became clear that studentshad surrendered to the poem and the score:both are lavish. The artists drowned themselvesin the characters and aura of Vergil and Purcell,listening to hours of baroque music, studyingcostumes, reading classic texts. One evening,during an early workshop, dancers tackled theshipwreck scene, set during a violent storm. Aftera rigorous physical improvisation, one dancerbegan to beat his cape, the rest following. The33WWW.CONCORDACADEMY.ORG WINTER 2007
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