2016 will see the publication of the new book of our director, Graham O’Reilly, about the famous Miserere by Gregorio Allegri. Including two new editions, you will be finally be able to begin to understand what it sounded like when sung in the Sistine Chapel – in brief, what all the fuss was about!

The version normally heard today was never heard as it stands in the Chapel, but is rather the creation of a 19^th century English musicologist, who was misled by the different strands of evidence. This new book, the fruit of 15 years of research, guides the reader through the little-known history of this mythical piece, and includes two new editions. And, yes, they both contain the famous high C’s!

It’s a fascinating story, full of unexpected events, of not only good but also bad faith,an  invasion and a scandal, but also exceptional generosity and above all, much virtuosity.

The new editions are based on to 19^th century manuscripts, one from around 1825 and the other from 1892, written down by the last real director of the college of Papal Singers who performed in the Sistine Chapel. It’s main function is to explain, in minute detail, how it should be sung, and its advice can be heard on the Ensemble’s recording of 2000  on the Naive/Ambronay label, a recording now accorded almost mythic status.

And you can perform it with your own choir! Buying the book gives you the right to purchase, at very favourable rates, as many copies as you need of the editions published there.

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Aeneas, however, has his own agenda. His debate between Love and Honour has already been resolved, at least in his own head. A time of delicious dalliance with the most beautiful widow of North Africa, yes; a long term arrangement, no. He has other work to do, and this is just another adventure along the way. The Aeneid still has six books to run.

This is where the witches come in. We have seen in my previous episode that in England at least they play an increasingly large part in the story through the 17^th century. This can partly be explained by the need to have a new kind of Deus ex machina to replace the Roman gods, who featured so much in Virgil. But it must also be related to their extreme popularity on the 17^th century English stage, especially after the Restoration of Charles II (1660). Shakespeare may have started it, as he did so many other things. The part of the witches in his Macbeth became more important with every revival, no doubt encouraged by the obsession of King James I with them. After the Restoration, Macbeth was revived in 1663, and again in 1673, each time with extra music for the witches. According to Samuel Pepys, Macbeth was “one of the best plays for a stage, and variety of dancing and musique, that ever I saw”. And in Shadwell’s The Lancashire Witches (1681) they take over the whole story, with an overtly political agenda.

In the England of Charles II religious quarrels still made political headlines: Anglicans v Puritans (as in the recent Civil War), and Anglicans and Puritans v Catholics, ever since Henry VIII. In 1680, the country was Anglican, but tenuously so: Charles II had recently converted to Catholicism in secret, and his brother James II, who would succeed him, was married to an Italian princess and openly Catholic. On the English stage, witches tended to be identified with Catholics, in the sense that they were seen both as followers of the devil and as false gods. It is thus extraordinary that Purcell’s Aeneas takes his instructions – to leave Carthage – from one. Does he really believe he is hearing Mercury transmitting a message from the gods? Or does he know he is being duped, and chooses to obey because it suits him?

In our take on the story, it is Aeneas himself who has set up the dénouement. While cultivating Dido by day, he has been amusing himself with the local coven (in truth a few local lads and girls letting off steam after a hard day’s work) by night, pretending to be their new Head Wizard. And when the time comes – when he has finally seduced the Queen – he gets one of them to pretend to order him to leave.

There have been productions in the past when Dido and the “Sorceress” were interpreted by the same artist, on the grounds that the witches express Dido’s “dark side”. This is the first time to my knowledge that the same artist sings both Aeneas and the “Sorceress”. It is not meant to be a definitive reading, but may help to shed light on Aeneas’s motivation, as understood in 17^th century England. It should also be noted that in every other play with witch scenes, their chief was always a man, and that when Dido and Aeneas was revived on the stage in 1700, the “sorceress” was sung by a baritone.

What all this may mean for why and when Purcell composed Dido will be revealed in my final instalment next week.

G O’R

Read Chapter 2 : Dido in England

Read Chapter 4: The when and why of Dido and Aeneas

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The post Heroes, Heroines and Witches – “Dido and Aeneas” by Purcell – Chapter 3 appeared first on Ensemble William Byrd - Graham O'Reilly.