Joyce DiDonato & Il Pomo D'Oro Orchestra & Choir in Henry Purcell's Dido & Aeneas

Wednesday, February 10, 7:30pm

Early Music: Opera & Oratorio
A Maria Manetti Shrem Great Artist Performance
Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas
Joyce DiDonato, mezzo-soprano
Il Pomo d’Oro Orchestra and Choir

Maxim Emelyanychev, conductor and harpsichord
Joyce DiDonato, mezzo-soprano (Dido)
Nicholas Phan, tenor (Jephte and Aeneas)
Beth Taylor, mezzo-soprano (Sorceress) 
Hugh Cutting, countertenor (Spirit)
Song Hee Lee, soprano (Belinda) 
Jiayu Jin, soprano (Second Woman and Filia)
Massimo Altieri, tenor (Sailor)
Alena Dantcheva, soprano (First Sorceress)
Anna Piroli, soprano (Second Sorceress)

Program: 
Carissimi/Jephte
Purcell/Dido and Aeneas

Mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato returns to Berkeley with the Italian period-music ensemble Il Pomo d’Oro in a program of Baroque music performing Purcell’s tragic opera Dido and Aeneas and Carissimi’s deeply emotive oratorio Jephte in concert. DiDonato has triumphed in opera houses worldwide as the tragic Queen of Carthage in Berlioz’s Les Troyens, but it wasn’t until 2024 that she first performed Purcell’s opera in its entirety. A highlight of the evening will be her interpretation of Dido’s famed lament, “When I am laid in earth,” brought to life with these sensitive accompanists.