CARA O’SULLIVAN MAJELLA CULLAGH MARY HEGARTY IN

Dido and Aeneas

BY HENRY PURCELL
And featuring SIMON MORGAN as Aeneas

Directed by JOHN O’BRIEN
Arrangement by MARJA GAYNOR

Cork’s International stars Cara O’Sullivan, Majella Cullagh and Mary Hegarty will perform on the stage together in Henry Purcell’s exquisite masterpiece Dido and Aeneas. The 1689 Baroque work is given a stunning new arrangement involving elements of jazz, gypsy and tango and is set in a fantastical gothic world.

This one-hour opera, based on the Roman poet Virgil’s tragic story of Queen Dido and her Trojan lover, Aeneas, was one of the fi rst operas written and performed in English.

In this new production, each of the four singers also plays their principal character’s subconscious other self – a concept which heightens the emotional and sexual tension created by the passion of hidden desires.

The new orchestration will be created by Baroque and contemporary music specialist and violinist, Marja Gaynor for a quartet of multi-instrumentalist musicians.

Dido and Aeneas offers a top-quality, not to be missed artistic experience for adults and an engaging introduction to opera for teenage audiences.