Acteon (Marc-Antoine Charpentier)

Acteon           James Oxley
Diane/Daphne     Mhairi Lawson
Junon            Sally Bruce-Payne
Arthebuze/Hyale  Jeni Bern

Dido and Aeneas

Dido             Louise Mott
Aeneas           Stuart MacIntyre
Belinda/second witch
                 Jeni Bern
Sorceress/Spirit Sally Bruce-Payne
First witch      Mhairi Lawson
First sailor     James Oxley

Jonathan Arnold, Norbert Meyn

Conductor/Harpsichord
                 Christian Curmyn

These two short operas from roughly the same period make an obvious double
bill. They use similar resources, and both have a jolly hunting chorus and
a final lament. Both also involve the wrath of Juno: Acteon ends with Juno
explaining that she has destroyed him (through his accidental intrusion on
Diana in her bath) as part of her persecution of the Theban royal family in
revenge for Europa. This pseudo-classical epilogue tries to elevate a
decorative piece of hunting pastoral into tragedy. In Dido, Juno in the
Aeneid is replaced by the Sorceress, and the tragedy of Dido is presented
as a domestic -- they have an affair, he says he'll give up everything for
her, but doesn't, and she is destroyed. Yet it is genuinely tragic, in
spite of a much abused title and terrible words, because of the amazing
power of the music.

The Early Opera Company, who did a creditable Ariodante in the Covent
Garden festival last year, presented a straight concert performance, with
just a little camping around from the Dido witches. The young singers and
orchestra were all pretty good, though the very small orchestra sounded
bottom heavy, with two violins, a viola, a bass violin, a viola de gamba
and a theorbo. I think this might be the first time I've actually heard a
theorbo...seen plenty of them, though. The night was very warm, and there
were some tuning problems of the peg-coming-loose variety.

Acteon was workmanlike. It probably needs bravura like that of Les Arts
Florissants to make it interesting (and LAF's recording isn't that
exciting, though it has a great filler in which the singers make animal
noises). But James Oxley was clear and semi-heroic as Acteon, and Sally
Bruce-Payne was a Juno you wouldn't get into a fight with. She has a lot of
voice as well. One of Diana's nymphs had a beard.

Dido was predictably better, though the imbalance of the orchestra was
sometimes a problem. Jeni Bern was a reasonably forceful Belinda -- a role
with no character, but a lot of music, which she delivered well. She and
Mhairi Lawson were a jolly pair of witches. And Louise Mott was a powerful,
intense, Dido. She seems to be turning into Susan Bickley (short bronze
hair, dress pants) but that's not such a bad thing up to a point. I think
Mott has more voice than Bickley, though she showed in last year's
Ariodante that she can do the baroque heroic stuff in style. One to watch.

The same double bill is on in the Lufthansa Festival, on 15 June, also at
St John's, with Katarine Karneus as Dido.