Editing Dido and Aeneas (section)

==Background and context==
[[File:Affresco romano - Enea e di.jpg|thumb|[[Dido]] and [[Aeneas]], from a Roman fresco, [[Pompeian Styles|Pompeian Third Style]] (10 BC – 45 AD), [[Pompeii]], Italy]]
Before ''Dido and Aeneas,'' Purcell had composed music for several stage works, including nine pieces for [[Nathaniel Lee]]'s ''[[Theodosius (play)|Theodosius, or The Force of Love]]'' (1680) and eight songs for [[Thomas d'Urfey]]'s ''[[A Fool's Preferment]]'' (1688). He also composed songs for two plays by [[Nahum Tate]] (later the librettist of Dido and Aeneas), ''The Sicilian Usurper'' (1680) and ''[[Cuckold's Haven]]'' (1685). ''Dido and Aeneas'' was Purcell's first (and only) all-sung opera and derives from the English [[masque]] tradition.

===Libretto===
Originally based on Nahum Tate's play ''[[Brutus of Alba (play)|Brutus of Alba, or The Enchanted Lovers]]'' (1678), the opera is likely, at least to some extent, to be [[allegorical]]. The prologue refers to the joy of a marriage between two monarchs, which could refer to the marriage between [[William III of England|William]] and [[Mary II of England|Mary]]. In a poem of about 1686, Tate alluded to [[James II of England|James II]] as Aeneas, who is misled by the evil machinations of the Sorceress and her witches (representing Roman Catholicism, a common metaphor at the time) into abandoning Dido, who symbolises the British people. The same symbolism may apply to the opera.<ref name=Grove /> This explains the addition of the characters of the Sorceress and the witches, which do not appear in the original ''Aeneid''. It would be noble, or at least acceptable, for Aeneas to follow the decree of the gods, but not so acceptable for him to be tricked by ill-meaning spirits.

Although the opera is a tragedy, there are numerous seemingly lighter scenes, such as the First Sailor's song, "Take a boozy short leave of your nymphs on the shore, and silence their mourning with vows of returning, though never intending to visit them more." Musicologist Ellen T. Harris considers the callousness and cynicism of the song to underline the "moral" of the story, that young women should not succumb to the advances and promises of ardent young men.<ref>Harris (1990) p. 17</ref>

===Score===
No score in Purcell's hand is [[Extant literature|extant]], and the only seventeenth-century source is a libretto, possibly from the original performance. The earliest extant score, held in the [[Bodleian Library]], was copied no earlier than 1750, well over sixty years after the opera was composed.{{sfn|Price|1984|p=239}} No later sources follow the act divisions of the libretto, and the music to the prologue is lost. The prologue, the end of the act 2 'Grove' scene, and several dances, were almost certainly lost when the opera was divided into parts to be performed as interludes between the acts of spoken plays in the first decade of the eighteenth century.{{sfn|Price|1984|pp=239–245}}

The first of the arias to be published separately was "Ah, Belinda" in ''[[Orpheus Britannicus]]''.<ref name=Grove /> The most famous [[aria]] of the work is "When I am laid in earth", popularly known as "[[Dido's Lament]]". Both arias are formed on a [[lament]]o [[ground bass]]. "Dido's Lament" has been performed or recorded by artists far from the typical operatic school, such as [[Klaus Nomi]] (as "Death"), [[Ane Brun]] and [[Jeff Buckley]]. It has also been transcribed or used in many scores, including the soundtrack to the [[HBO]] miniseries ''[[Band of Brothers (miniseries)|Band of Brothers]]'' (renamed "Nixon's Walk"). It is played annually by a military band at [[The Cenotaph, Whitehall|the Cenotaph]] [[Remembrance Sunday|remembrance ceremony]], which takes place on the Sunday nearest to 11 November ([[Armistice Day]]) in London's [[Whitehall]]. The music is sometimes thought to be too simple for Purcell in 1689, but this may simply reflect that the intended performers were schoolchildren.<ref name=Grove /> The work is scored for four-part strings and continuo. The fact that the libretto from the Chelsea School performance indicates two dances for guitar, the "Dance Gittars Chacony" in act 1, and the "Gittar Ground a Dance" in the 'Grove' scene of act 2, has led one scholar to suggest that Purcell envisaged a guitar as a primary member of the continuo group for the opera.{{sfn|Holman|1994|pp=200–201}} Music for neither of these dances is extant, and it seems likely that Purcell did not compose them, but rather left them to be improvised by the guitarist.{{sfn|Holman|1994|p=200}} Several editions of the opera have been made and have been provided with a continuo realisation; a notable, if rather idiosyncratic edition being that made by [[Imogen Holst]] and [[Benjamin Britten]]. There are a number of editions with realisations, and the opera's accessibility to amateur performers is a feature that has greatly abetted the growth of its popularity in the latter half of the twentieth century.<ref name=Dent>Purcell (1991) p. iv</ref> While the Prologue's music has been lost and has not been reconstructed, several realisations of the opera include a solution to the missing ''ritornello'' at the end of the second act. Known to have been part of the score, it is now performed as a dance taken from other, similar works by Purcell, or invented outright in the same vein, to keep the integrity and continuity of the performance.