Yet it's remarkable that even those colleagues of Purcell's who presumably knew the work never seem to mention it. Could Dido's fate have been so quickly forgotten?

Rene Jacobs' new recording of the opera will surely linger in the memory for a long time. This is a brilliantly imaginative, gripping performance, thanks partly to an excellent, star-packed cast (with outstanding singers like Maria Cristina Kiehr and Robin Blaze taking minor roles), but thanks also to Jacobs' well-paced direction. In particular, he gladly embraces the work's emotional extremes and astutely exploits their dramatic potential.

The supernatural scenes are especially well done, both comic and scary. Susan Bickley's relatively "straight" yet chilling Sorceress is complemented by the gleefully malevolent cackling of Dominique Visse's First Witch, and Jacobs also plays up the Chorus's lurching rhythms to great effect, leaving you in no doubt that these are the forces of disorder!

In contrast, Dido-superbly sung by Lynne Dawson- is a convincingly human and tragic figure from the outset. Her angry third act exchange with Aeneas has real bite and, following her sublime Lament, the final chorus has a sombre, moving grandeur.
GRAHAM LOCK

Dido & Aeneas
HENRY PURCELL
René Jacobs
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment , Clare College Chapel Choir
Lynne Dawson, Rosemary Joshua
Harmonia Mundi 901683
1998 - 59:33 min.