Dido, Queen of Carthage (opera)
Encyclopedia
Dido, Queen of Carthage was an opera
in three acts by Stephen Storace
. Its English libretto
by Prince Hoare was adapted from Metastasio
's 1724 libretto, Didone abbandonata
(Dido Abandoned), which had been set by many composers. Storace's opera premiered on 23 May 1792 at The King's Theatre
in London combined with a performance of his masque
, Neptune's Prophecy. The story is based on that of Dido and Aeneas
in the fourth book of Virgil's
Aeneid
. The opera was not a success and was never revived after its original run of performances. The score has been lost.
, and the fourth of his operas to be written for the London stage. His librettist, Prince Hoare, had previously worked with Storace on several afterpiece
s, including No song, no supper
and The Cave of Trophonius. His re-working of Metastasio's Didone abbandonata was to be Hoare's first full-length opera libretto. The 1792 edition of the libretto described the music as "principally new, and composed by Mr. Storace", although there were some arias with music from previous settings of Metastasio's text, most notably Antonio Sacchini
's "Son regina e sono amante".
Operas set to Metastasio's Didone abbandonata were not new to the London stage. Previous productions had included: Leonardo Vinci
's Didone abbandonata (Royal Opera House
, 1737); Johann Hasse's Didone (The King's Theatre
, 1748); Vincenzo Ciampi's Didone (The King's Theatre, 1754); Baldassare Galuppi's La Didone abbandonata (The King's Theatre, 1761); Antonio Sacchini's Didone abbandonata (The King's Theatre, 1775); and Pasquale Anfossi
's pastiche opera Didone abbandonata (The King's Theatre, 1786)
The lead singers of Storace's opera were well known to London audiences. The celebrated German soprano
, Elisabeth Mara
, who sang the role of Dido, had made her London stage debut in 1786 in the title role of Anfossi's Didone abbandonata and had sung at the King's Theatre several times in the intervening years. The role of Aeneas was sung en travesti
by the English soprano and stage actress, Anna Maria Crouch
. Her lover and frequent stage partner, Michael Kelly, sang the tenor
role of Iarbas The pair had appeared in several earlier works by Storace, including No song, no supper (1790) and The Siege of Belgrade (1791) and would later appear in his comic opera The Pirates
.
Dido, Queen of Carthage opened on 23 May 1792 at The King's Theatre and was scheduled to run for five performances, one of which (28 May) was a benefit performance for Storace. The production was a lavish one with sets and stage machinery by the noted stage designer, Thomas Greenwood. According to a review in The Morning Herald (24 May 1792), "a procession was introduced in which an ostrich, a dromedary
and an elephant marched to slow music". Despite the pagentry, the opera's reception by audiences and critics was tepid and the work was never revived after its initial run. The British playwright and theatre critic, James Boaden
, attended the opening night and later recalled:
No copies of Storace's score exist. It was never published and the original was lost (possibly in the fire that destroyed the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
in 1809).
Main opera: Dido, Queen of Carthage
Dido, Queen of Carthage, is promised in marriage to Iarbas, King of Getulia but has fallen in love with the Trojan
warrior Aeneas, who had been shipwrecked on the shores of her city. Iarbas appears (disguised as his own ambassador and using the name "Orodes") to warn Dido that Aeneas cannot become King of Carthage. Nevertheless Dido refuses to marry Iarbas. Although Aeneas is now in love with Dido, he asks her sister Anna to tell Dido of his plans to leave Carthage for Italy. War then breaks out between Aeneas and Iarbas. Dido convinces Aeneas to become her husband and share the throne of Carthage. However, when the ghost of Aeneas' father reminds him of his duty to his people, Aeneas realises that he must abandon Dido. As Aeneas and his men set sail for Italy and Carthage is besieged by Iarbas and his troops, the heartbroken Dido commits suicide and dies amidst the flames of the city.
Masque: Neptune's Prophecy
In the patriotic masque
which followed the opera performance, Neptune, the god of the sea, appears along with Venus
, Ascanius
, and the Three Graces
to praise the glory of Great Britain as a "god-like race" and to predict that the nation will eclipse both Tyre and Carthage
in naval fame.
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
in three acts by Stephen Storace
Stephen Storace
Stephen Storace was an English composer. His sister was the famous opera singer Nancy Storace. He was born in London in the Parish of St Marylebone to an English mother and Italian father...
. Its English libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
by Prince Hoare was adapted from Metastasio
Metastasio
Pietro Antonio Domenico Trapassi, better known by his pseudonym of Metastasio, was an Italian poet and librettist, considered the most important writer of opera seria libretti.-Early life:...
's 1724 libretto, Didone abbandonata
Didone abbandonata
Didone abbandonata is an opera libretto in 3 acts by Pietro Metastasio. It was his first original work and was set to music by Domenico Sarro in 1724...
(Dido Abandoned), which had been set by many composers. Storace's opera premiered on 23 May 1792 at The King's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre is a West End theatre, in Haymarket, City of Westminster, London. The present building was designed by Charles J. Phipps and was constructed in 1897 for actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who established the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at the theatre...
in London combined with a performance of his masque
Masque
The masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment which flourished in 16th and early 17th century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio...
, Neptune's Prophecy. The story is based on that of Dido and Aeneas
Aeneas
Aeneas , in Greco-Roman mythology, was a Trojan hero, the son of the prince Anchises and the goddess Aphrodite. His father was the second cousin of King Priam of Troy, making Aeneas Priam's second cousin, once removed. The journey of Aeneas from Troy , which led to the founding a hamlet south of...
in the fourth book of Virgil's
Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro, usually called Virgil or Vergil in English , was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature, the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid...
Aeneid
Aeneid
The Aeneid is a Latin epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans. It is composed of roughly 10,000 lines in dactylic hexameter...
. The opera was not a success and was never revived after its original run of performances. The score has been lost.
Background and performance history
Dido, Queen of Carthage, was Storace's first opera seriaOpera seria
Opera seria is an Italian musical term which refers to the noble and "serious" style of Italian opera that predominated in Europe from the 1710s to c. 1770...
, and the fourth of his operas to be written for the London stage. His librettist, Prince Hoare, had previously worked with Storace on several afterpiece
Afterpiece
An afterpiece is a short, usually humorous one-act playlet or musical work following the main attraction, the full-length play, and concluding the theatrical evening. This short comedy, farce, opera or pantomime was a popular theatrical form in the 18th and 19th centuries...
s, including No song, no supper
No song, no supper
No song, no supper is an opera with music by Stephen Storace to a libretto by Prince Hoare.No song, no supper is an operatic afterpiece which is the first of Storace's five collaborations with Hoare. Its premiere was at the Drury Lane Theatre in London, on April 16, 1790.The piece was first given...
and The Cave of Trophonius. His re-working of Metastasio's Didone abbandonata was to be Hoare's first full-length opera libretto. The 1792 edition of the libretto described the music as "principally new, and composed by Mr. Storace", although there were some arias with music from previous settings of Metastasio's text, most notably Antonio Sacchini
Antonio Sacchini
Antonio Maria Gasparo Sacchini was an Italian opera composer.Sacchini was born in Florence, but was raised in Naples, where he received his musical education at the San Onofrio conservatory. He wrote his first operas in Naples, thereafter moving to Venice, then London and eventually Paris, where...
's "Son regina e sono amante".
Operas set to Metastasio's Didone abbandonata were not new to the London stage. Previous productions had included: Leonardo Vinci
Leonardo Vinci
Leonardo Vinci was an Italian composer, best known for his operas.He was born at Strongoli and educated at Naples under Gaetano Greco in the Conservatorio dei Poveri di Gesù Cristo. He first became known for his opere buffe in Neapolitan dialect in 1719; he also composed many opere serie...
's Didone abbandonata (Royal Opera House
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
, 1737); Johann Hasse's Didone (The King's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre is a West End theatre, in Haymarket, City of Westminster, London. The present building was designed by Charles J. Phipps and was constructed in 1897 for actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who established the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at the theatre...
, 1748); Vincenzo Ciampi's Didone (The King's Theatre, 1754); Baldassare Galuppi's La Didone abbandonata (The King's Theatre, 1761); Antonio Sacchini's Didone abbandonata (The King's Theatre, 1775); and Pasquale Anfossi
Pasquale Anfossi
Bonifacio Domenico Pasquale Anfossi was an Italian opera composer. Born in Taggia, Liguria, he studied with Niccolò Piccinni and Antonio Sacchini, and worked mainly in London, Venice and Rome....
's pastiche opera Didone abbandonata (The King's Theatre, 1786)
The lead singers of Storace's opera were well known to London audiences. The celebrated German soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
, Elisabeth Mara
Gertrud Elisabeth Mara
Gertrud Elisabeth Mara [née Schmeling] was a German operatic soprano.She was born in Kassel, the daughter of a poor musician, Johann Schmeling. From him she learnt to play the violin, and while still a child, her playing at the fair at Frankfurt was so remarkable that money was collected to...
, who sang the role of Dido, had made her London stage debut in 1786 in the title role of Anfossi's Didone abbandonata and had sung at the King's Theatre several times in the intervening years. The role of Aeneas was sung en travesti
En travesti
Travesti is a theatrical term referring to the portrayal of a character in an opera, play, or ballet by a performer of the opposite sex. Some sources regard 'travesti' as an Italian term, some as French. Depending on sources, the term may be given as travesty, travesti, or en travesti...
by the English soprano and stage actress, Anna Maria Crouch
Anna Maria Crouch
Anna Maria Crouch , often referred to as Mrs Crouch, was a singer and stage actress in the London theatre. She was a mistress of George, Prince of Wales.-Early life and acting career:...
. Her lover and frequent stage partner, Michael Kelly, sang the tenor
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
role of Iarbas The pair had appeared in several earlier works by Storace, including No song, no supper (1790) and The Siege of Belgrade (1791) and would later appear in his comic opera The Pirates
The Pirates
The Pirates is an opera by composer Stephen Storace with an English libretto by James Cobb. The work was partly adapted from Storace's 1786 opera, Gli equivoci and is remarkable as affording one of the earliest instances of the introduction of a grand finale into an English opera. The work...
.
Dido, Queen of Carthage opened on 23 May 1792 at The King's Theatre and was scheduled to run for five performances, one of which (28 May) was a benefit performance for Storace. The production was a lavish one with sets and stage machinery by the noted stage designer, Thomas Greenwood. According to a review in The Morning Herald (24 May 1792), "a procession was introduced in which an ostrich, a dromedary
Dromedary
The dromedary or Arabian camel is a large, even-toed ungulate with one hump on its back. Its native range is unclear, but it was probably the Arabian Peninsula. The domesticated form occurs widely in North Africa and the Middle East...
and an elephant marched to slow music". Despite the pagentry, the opera's reception by audiences and critics was tepid and the work was never revived after its initial run. The British playwright and theatre critic, James Boaden
James Boaden
-Life:He was the son of William Boaden, a merchant in the Russia trade. He was born at Whitehaven, Cumberland, on 23 May 1762, and at an early age came with his parents to London, where he was educated for commerce...
, attended the opening night and later recalled:
Mr. Prince Hoare was employed upon the Didone Abbandonata of Metastasio; and fitted its music, I fear, not with syllable, but English words, distributed into recitativeRecitativeRecitative , also known by its Italian name "recitativo" , is a style of delivery in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms of ordinary speech...
and airAriaAn aria in music was originally any expressive melody, usually, but not always, performed by a singer. The term is now used almost exclusively to describe a self-contained piece for one voice usually with orchestral accompaniment...
; and Dido, with immense splendour of scenery, dresses, and decorations, was brought out on the 23rd of May. Madame Mara was your Dido, Kelly Iarbas, and the pious Eneas Mrs Crouch herself! There was, for garnish, a masque, in which Bannister was the Neptune, Miss Collins Venus, and the three Graces, Misses Decamp, Jacobs, and Heard. And yet, all this, with the aid of Sedgewick, and Dignum, and Master Welsh, with supernumerariesSupernumerary actorSupernumerary actors are usually amateur character actors in opera and ballet performances who train under professional direction to create a believable scene.- Definition :...
out of number, lived only three or four nights, and then vanished like a dream. But the power of Metastasio must not suffer from the harshness of another language, and the taste of a people requiring bolder situations in the drama and a crowd of incidents arranged with little artifice, and ambitious of only striking effects.
No copies of Storace's score exist. It was never published and the original was lost (possibly in the fire that destroyed the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is a West End theatre in Covent Garden, in the City of Westminster, a borough of London. The building faces Catherine Street and backs onto Drury Lane. The building standing today is the most recent in a line of four theatres at the same location dating back to 1663,...
in 1809).
Roles
- Dido – created by Gertrud Elisabeth MaraGertrud Elisabeth MaraGertrud Elisabeth Mara [née Schmeling] was a German operatic soprano.She was born in Kassel, the daughter of a poor musician, Johann Schmeling. From him she learnt to play the violin, and while still a child, her playing at the fair at Frankfurt was so remarkable that money was collected to...
- Aeneas – created by Anna Maria CrouchAnna Maria CrouchAnna Maria Crouch , often referred to as Mrs Crouch, was a singer and stage actress in the London theatre. She was a mistress of George, Prince of Wales.-Early life and acting career:...
- Iarbas – created by Michael Kelly
- Abdalla – created by Charles Dignum
- Almidah – created by Thomas Sedgwick
- Anna – created by Caroline Barclay
- Trojan soldiers, Getulian and Numidian troups, Trojan and Carthaginian attendants
Synopsis
- Setting: Ancient CarthageCarthageCarthage , implying it was a 'new Tyre') is a major urban centre that has existed for nearly 3,000 years on the Gulf of Tunis, developing from a Phoenician colony of the 1st millennium BC...
Dido, Queen of Carthage, is promised in marriage to Iarbas, King of Getulia but has fallen in love with the Trojan
Troy
Troy was a city, both factual and legendary, located in northwest Anatolia in what is now Turkey, southeast of the Dardanelles and beside Mount Ida...
warrior Aeneas, who had been shipwrecked on the shores of her city. Iarbas appears (disguised as his own ambassador and using the name "Orodes") to warn Dido that Aeneas cannot become King of Carthage. Nevertheless Dido refuses to marry Iarbas. Although Aeneas is now in love with Dido, he asks her sister Anna to tell Dido of his plans to leave Carthage for Italy. War then breaks out between Aeneas and Iarbas. Dido convinces Aeneas to become her husband and share the throne of Carthage. However, when the ghost of Aeneas' father reminds him of his duty to his people, Aeneas realises that he must abandon Dido. As Aeneas and his men set sail for Italy and Carthage is besieged by Iarbas and his troops, the heartbroken Dido commits suicide and dies amidst the flames of the city.
Masque: Neptune's Prophecy
- Setting: A temple to NeptuneNeptune (mythology)Neptune was the god of water and the sea in Roman mythology and religion. He is analogous with, but not identical to, the Greek god Poseidon. In the Greek-influenced tradition, Neptune was the brother of Jupiter and Pluto, each of them presiding over one of the three realms of the universe,...
In the patriotic masque
Masque
The masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment which flourished in 16th and early 17th century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio...
which followed the opera performance, Neptune, the god of the sea, appears along with Venus
Venus (mythology)
Venus is a Roman goddess principally associated with love, beauty, sex,sexual seduction and fertility, who played a key role in many Roman religious festivals and myths...
, Ascanius
Ascanius
Ascanius is the son of the Trojan hero Aeneas and a legendary king of Alba Longa. He is a character of Roman mythology, and has a divine lineage, being the son of Aeneas, who is son of Venus and the hero Anchises, a relative of Priam; thus Ascanius has divine ascendents by both parents, being...
, and the Three Graces
Charites
In Greek mythology, a Charis is one of several Charites , goddesses of charm, beauty, nature, human creativity and fertility. They ordinarily numbered three, from youngest to oldest: Aglaea , Euphrosyne , and Thalia . In Roman mythology they were known as the Gratiae, the "Graces"...
to praise the glory of Great Britain as a "god-like race" and to predict that the nation will eclipse both Tyre and Carthage
Carthage
Carthage , implying it was a 'new Tyre') is a major urban centre that has existed for nearly 3,000 years on the Gulf of Tunis, developing from a Phoenician colony of the 1st millennium BC...
in naval fame.
Sources
- Boaden, James, Memoirs of the Life of John P. Kemble, R.H. Small, 1825
- Bono, Paola and Tessitore, Maria Vittoria, "Didone en travesti: un'eroina tragica in commedia" in Viola Papetti (ed.), Le forme del teatro, Volume 8, Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 1997. ISBN 8887114048
- Burden, Michael, Metastasio on the British Stage 1728–1840, a catalogue, Oxford University Research Archive, 2008 (accessed 6 December 2009)
- Edgcumbe, RichardRichard Edgcumbe, 2nd Earl of Mount EdgcumbeRichard Edgcumbe, 2nd Earl of Mount Edgcumbe PC , styled Viscount Valletort between 1789 and 1795, was a British politician and writer on music.-Background:...
, Musical Reminiscences of an Old Amateur, W. Clarke, 1827 - Nicoll, Allardyce, A History of English Drama 1660-1900, Volume 3, Cambridge University Press, 2009. ISBN 0521109302
- Price, Curtis Alexander et al., Italian Opera in Late Eighteenth-century London: The King's Theatre, Haymarket, 1778-1791, Oxford University Press, 1995. ISBN 0198161662
- The Gentleman's Magazine, Obituary: Prince Hoare, Esq. F.S.A., Volume 158, June 1835, p. 662
- Walker's Hibernian Magazine, "Account of a new serious opera, called Dido Q. of Carthage" Part 2, 1792