Purcell- Dido and Aeneas~ 'When I am laid in earth' (Dido's Lament)

This is Purcell's operatic masterpiece: Dido and Aeneas.
First performed in 1689 as a school production, at Mr. Josias Priest's boarding school at Chelsy by girls, this relatively short length one-hour English opera (in three acts) has a lot of choral singing and dancing.

Main Characters:

Dido, Queen of Carthage (soprano)
Aeneas, Prince of Trojan (baritone)
Belinda, Dido's serving maid (soprano)
Sorceress (mezzo-soprano)

In this opera Purcell, known as "the British Orpheus" because of the lyricism of his works, assimilated the achievements of the Continent- the dynamic instrumental style, the movement toward major-minor tonality. the recitative, aria and ground bass of Italian opera, and the French overture and the dance rhythms of the French- and adapted them to England.

The story is taken from Book Four of Virgil's 'Aeneid', in which the hero Aeneas, returning from Troy, is shipwrecked at Carthage where he falls in love with its queen, Dido. But the gods urge him to leave and the broken-hearted Dido kills herself. The final aria of this short opera is known as 'Dido's Lament', in which the distraught heroine sings of her approaching death:

When I am laid in earth
May my wrongs create
No trouble in thy breast;
Remember me, but ah! Forget my fate.

Sung over a slow, descending ground bass of only ten notes, the aria is one of the most intensely moving pieces in all English music. It transforms the doggerel of the song's words into real poetry, and lingers in the mind long after the music as ceased.

Here is a more detailed outline of the music:

Dido prepares to meet her fate - death - in a the moving recitative "Thy hand, Belinda", with much chromaticism and half-step movement (sigh motive), that introduces her lament aria.

The emotional, slow-moving lament "When I am laid in earth" (G minor), in two sections, each repeated (A-A-B-B), unfolds over a five-measure ground bass (ostinato) in triple meter (3/2), descending along the chromatic scale as a symbol of grief.
The ground bass is played eleven times, the first time is the instrumental introduction, the last two times serve as an instrumental closing.
The phrase "laid in earth" is rendered musically by a downward movement of the notes.
In section B "Remember me, remember me, but ah, forget my fate" Dido sings "Remember me" repeatedly six times, and in highly expressive rising lines.


Kym Amps, soprano
The Scholars Baroque Ensemble

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[81drake81]

Oh Great! When I saw that you've already uploaded the overture of "Dido and Aeneas" last week, I had hoped imploringly that you'll also upload "Dido's Lament". This aria is so..... (Words fail me).

But you're probably already tired of hearing my profuse thanks!?

[bubblykings]

You're welcome. :) I enjoy this aria very much as well.

[pogo1957]

What is the painting? It is so mute and negative about music...

[hootersnooter]

Far too much vibrato...YUK!

[Alicia7777777]

Great music!

[ShakespeareHamlet]

beautiful.

[conejolua]

beautiful piece

thanks for uploading

Best regards

Raul ...