Baroque band Barokksolistene engages with Longborough’s refreshing new Dido and Aeneas

United Kingdom Purcell, Dido and Aeneas: Soloists, The Longborough Youth Chorus, Barokksolistene (musical director Bjarte Eike). Longborough, Gloucestershire, 29.7.2025. (CP)

Production:
Director – Erlend Samnøen
Scenic design – Alys Whitehead
Costume design – Åsa Gjerstad
Lighting design – Peter Small
Youth Chorus master – Will Sharma

Cast:
Dido – Camilla Seale
Aeneas – Sam Young
Belinda – Jasmine Flicker
Sorceress – Lydia Shariff
First witch – Lara Rebekah Harvey
Second witch – Myrna Tennant
Cousins of the Queen – Samantha Hargreaves, Megan O’Neill
Spirit – Tomos Owen Jones
Sailor – Guy Beynon

Dido and Aeneas with a difference is Longborough’s 2025 Emerging Artist Programme choice. Excellent this proves to be with all five performances sold out. Purcell’s only opera is recognised as deeply moving and unforgettable; this Longborough production is unforgettable for some very special reasons and is deserving of the praise heaped on it. Good friends and fellow Norwegians, Bjarte Eike and Erlend Samnøen collaborate so successfully with the integration of the seven-piece Baroque band Barokksolistene into the action on the stage. Before that happened, many in the audience were taken by surprise by members of the band serenading them in the stalls and talking animatedly with others waiting to take their seats. Soon the chorus joined the band on the stage to set the scene using large banners held aloft. BETTER LEAVE CARTHAGE BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE was one, LARBAS TAKE YOUR FINGERS OFF CARTHAGE, another. Larbas is the Berber king, a suitor of Dido but frustrated by her rejection of him in favour of Aeneas. Although Larbus is a non-singing role, Steven Player is ever-present in the role and delights in demonstrating his thorough studies of Fine Art, dance and acting. Most recently, his collaboration with Barokksolistene – now twenty years old – in their Alehouse Sessions has been praised for their skills shown in persuading performers to interact with their audiences in truthful entertainment.

Bjarte Eike, Barokksolistene’s leader and violinist, plays a major role as the MC for the evening. He introduces the singers, directs the musical interventions, organises audience participation in learning a song chorus – ‘Away, haul away. We’ll haul away Joe’, and hosts a wake following the demise of Dido. He is a charismatic leader, capable of quick repartee, he has his audience in the palm of his hands from Act I; a fine musician too, happy in his role which dictates the pace of the band’s accompaniment. Although he is not an emerging artist, Longborough’s young artists respond in the most positive way to his musical direction and no doubt, value his leadership.

First to shine is Jasmine Flicker (Belinda) as she reassures the tormented Dido that her love of Aeneas would not weaken the rule of Carthage. Jasmine’s multi-talents – she has a fine soprano voice – are shown later in the performance as she picks up her violin to join in the folk music playing of the wake. Her opening arietta ‘Shake the cloud from your brow’ was simply charming. Camilla Seale (Dido) brings a wealth of experience to the role as she commands her stage. Roles with Buxton, Welsh National Opera and Opera North have given her the confidence to tackle such a significant soprano role. She responds to Belinda with a thoughtful rendition of ‘Ah! Belinda, I am pressed’. Throughout Act I she is well supported by Jasmine and the two cousins, Samantha Hargreaves and Megan O’Neill, who sing a delightful quartet as they prepare for the return of Aeneas who struggles with potentially breaking his oath to the Gods to build another Troy. Sam Young (Aeneas) is a strong baritone, a Guildhall graduate with previous experience at Longborough in their 2024 production of La bohème. Taking his time to blossom on the night he eventually emerges as a strong character in his dealings with Mercury with whom he agrees he should sail for Italy. Lydia Shariff (Sorceress) and her two witches sung by Lara Rebekah Harvey and Myrna Tennant, present a frightening challenge. Dressed from head to toe in black all three are very convincing and become increasingly chilling as the troublemakers.

Guy Beynon (Sailor) has a delightful cameo role as the Sailor, making a strong entry as both a dancer and a fine tenor. His colourful costume is just one of many original creative design efforts by Åsa Gjerstad in association with Alys Whitehead. Alys also takes responsibility for set design, too. This design will not be the biggest challenge she will ever face as the stage is pleasingly clutter-free being arranged to accommodate a harpsichord and offer masses of space for dancers and musicians to perform accident free!

Challenges facing the Dido and Aeneas relationship peak in Act III with the final meeting and the exceptional recitative, ‘Your counsel all is urg’d in vain’, in effect saying we must part! Taking her poison, at which point the band crouches down, she dies singing the Dido lament, ‘When I am laid in earth’, now regarded as one of the greatest arias in the history of music. A very moving end to the this very encouraging Longborough Emerging Artists production.

Suddenly, it is very obvious this is not the end of the show! There is much to come to showcase both the singers and the Baroque band. The band begins with a charming Norwegian folk song made popular by the Danish String Quartet as one of their encores. The wake develops into quite a party with a sea shanty, more dancing and delightful cello and theorbo playing before the audience, having been reminded of their earlier chorus practice, deliver a stirring response to Bajarte Eike’s cajoling. Seldom has post-curtain activity been such fun with this carefully scripted wake ending appropriately with the Scottish folksong, ‘The Parting Glass’, often sung at the end of a gathering of friends.

Happy days in the Cotswolds as this refreshingly different production of Dido and Aeneas ends another Longborough season on a high. Many of these emerging artists will be seen in the future in opera houses across the world.  They deserve this opportunity to shine.

Clive Peacock

Featured Image: Jasmine Flicker (Belinda) in Dido and Aeneas © Matthew Williams-Ellis