PURCELL Dido & Aeneas
Reimagined in the lively tradition of 17th-c. London theatre

Apollo’s Fire’s “exhilarating” production of Dido & Aeneas won three rave reviews at its 2025 premiere performances in Chicago and Cleveland. Serving as both music director and stage director, Jeannette Sorrell takes Purcell’s masterpiece back to its roots in the rustic tradition of the mid-17th-c. London theatre scene. Purcell was highly involved in that scene, where the legacy of the Globe Theatre flourished in fast-paced drama mingled with comic moments.
 
Sorrell delivers an intensely human conception of Virgil’s timeless myth – one that asks questions about fate and ambition, while also cultivating the lively and even boisterous audience interaction that was a hallmark of 17th-century London theatre.
 
Expanded to just under two hours, the production includes extra dance music by Purcell, and two notable scenes added by Sorrell: a spoken theatrical Prologue in which four girls from the boarding school introduce the themes of the opera in delightful rhymed verse; and a sea-shanties scene performed by Aeneas’ rustic sailors as they prepare to depart from Carthage.
 
Reviews | Video | Additional Photos | Ensemble Size & Tech Needs
 

A Rollicking and Intense ‘Dido’ Claims the Stage
Seen & Heard International – Mark Sebastian Jordan

“This semi-staged concept of Dido was so fast-moving and full of life, it is hard to imagine a fully-staged version of the work better capturing its spirit…. The audience’s response was rapturous. Throughout the opera, Sorrell worked as closely with the instrumental players as the singers, drawing everyone present into the energetic whirlwind of Purcell’s masterpiece, to triumphant effect.” [ READ MORE ]

A lively and infectious “Dido and Aeneas”
Chicago Classical Review – John von Rhein

“High style… In a refreshing change from the rather stodgy seriousness with which Purcell’s only opera is typically represented, Jeannette Sorrell took the miniature tragic opera back to its roots in Shakespearean theater, evoking the energy, casual (even sometimes rowdy) tone and frequent audience interaction that prevailed at the Globe…. Abundant charm… The shifts of dramatic tone, from high tragedy to low comedy, meshed beautifully with Sorrell’s urgent musical direction and the crisp responses of an excellent cast and skilled period-instrumentalists and chamber chorus.
 
Sorrell encouraged audience participation and Saturday’s packed house gamely entered into the user-friendly spirit of things—booing the duplicitous Sorceress and witches… Above all, there was an exhilarating sense of ensemble —of conductor, singers, dancers and instrumentalists pulling together to illuminate the varied delights of the music and mini-drama from within.” [ READ MORE ]

An Elegant and Radiant Dido & Aeneas
ClevelandClassical.com

“Elegant and radiant… Jeannette Sorrell’s direction added a Shakespearean pulse — brisk, lively, and human. Her approach emulated the fast-moving style of seventeenth-century English theater, when audiences stood at the players’ feet and tragedy mingled with laughter. Apollo’s Singers performed Purcell’s madrigal-like choruses with sparkling polish. The closing chorus, “With drooping wings,” became a communal act of mourning.
 
Conducting from the harpsichord, Sorrell drew elegant playing from the strings. Under her direction, the dances were kept buoyant with subtle distinctions of grace, lift, and swing. Sorrell and company shaped a drama both taut and compassionate, proving that Purcell’s genius lies not in scale but in proportion — and in his uncanny gift for making an ancient heartbreak feel freshly human.” [ READ MORE ]