Michael Nyman - Prologue to Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell (2010)
Commissioned by the Kolobov Novaya Opera Theatre of Moscow, Michael Nyman's 'Prologue to Dido and Aeneas' serves as an accompanying work to Henry Purcell's famous Baroque opera. Conceived of by director Natalia Anastasieva and written by Vera Pavlova and Steven Seymour, the libretto concerns the circumstances surrounding the first known performance of Dido and Aeneas at Josiah Priest's boarding school for girls in Chelsea, London in 1689.
As with the Purcell work, the opera is scored for SATB voices, strings, and harpsichord. In this digital realization of the score, the female voices are emulated by flutes and oboes and the male voices by bassoons.
