Opera

Dido and Aeneas

The Beacon, Greenock

Mary Brennan

four stars

LOVE, betrayal, heartbreak, suicide – here be the timeless stuff of five act tragedies. However, in around 1689, the English Baroque composer, Henry Purcell, distilled all these elements into a bijou opera that lasts but a brief hour on the stage: Dido and Aeneas. First performed by the pupils of Joseph Priest’s girls school in Chelsea, other young voices (and musicians) – all members of Scottish Opera’s Connect company – have now responded to the ornately detailed character of the music with an energy that was meticulous, thrillingly nuanced and above all, invigoratingly fresh. Given that it’s the first time the group (founded in 2008, age range 16-21), has staged a classic piece from the established repertoire, the production, well served by the Beacon’s acoustic, proved something of a triumph all round.

Leading roles were accounted for by three professional soloists, Sarah Power (Belinda), Paul Keohone (Aeneas) and Shuna Scott Sendall, doubling as both the wronged Dido and the Sorceress who plotted against her. Any vestige of dignified majesty was tossed aside when Sendall, garbed like a 19th century principal boy in panto tartanalia, embraced the dark side with flamboyant relish. Her coven of witches, all tweedy-heathery familiars of the grouse moor, were Connect singers, acting up a storm under the direction of Mary McCluskey who, abetted by designer Finlay McLay and choreographer Darren Brownlie, laced together aspects of stagecraft from ancient Rome to the present day, via the stylised formalities of Purcell’s own times – a neat reminder that no era is without its hapless, abandoned women. Conductor/director Chris Gray can take genuine pride in how his Connect company, including young soloists like Lorna Murray as Dido’s attendant, rose to the challenges, choral and orchestral, with such focus and finesse.