Ariadne | Dido and Aeneas

Known for the emotional impact and strong narrative drive of her music, composer Elena Langer’s Ariadne here sets Glyn Maxwell’s poem Ariadne to Theseus, a poignant one-act drama which explores how absence is defined by love. Purcell’s compact masterpiece, based on Virgil’s epic poem The Aeneid, packs courtly elegance, grotesque witches, a dramatic storm, drunk pirates and doomed love into its hour-long duration; Purcell’s music brilliantly depicting each.