Overture
Act 1
Shake the cloud - Banish Sorrow
Ah! Belinda
Grief increases by concealing - When Monarchs unite - When could so much virtue spring
Fear no danger -See, your royal guest appears
Cupid only throws the dart - If not for mine for Empire’s sake - Persue thy conquest Love
To the hills and the vales - The Triumphing Dance

Act 2
Prelude for the Witches
Wayward sisters -Harm’s our delight
The queen of Carthage - Ho, Ho, Ho
Ruined ere the set of Sun! - The trojan Prince - Ho, Ho, Ho
But ere we this perform - In our deep vaulted cell - Dance
The Grove - Thanks to these lonesome vales
Gitter Ground at Dance - Often she visits
Behold, apon my bending spear - The skies are coloured - Haste haste to town
Stay Prince

Act 3
The Sailors Dance
See, See the flags - Our next motion - Destruction’s our delight
The Witches’ dance
Your counsel all is urged in vain - Great minds
Thy Hand Belinda
When I am laid
With drooping wings

La Nuova Musica and its artistic director David Bates present Henry Purcell's most widely admired work Dido and Aeneas. With Nathum Tate's libretto based on Virgil's Aeneid Book IV, Dido and Aeneas is a miniature opera, as well as the only all-sung opera Purcell ever composed.

Constantly juxtaposing different moods, colours, orchestrations, this semi-opera enjoys the popularity for its "tunefulness, evocative power, and [...] its conciseness". The guiding star that David Bates wants to follow for this recording is making sure that Purcell's Italian, French, and English musical influences are all emphasized - by adding a typically Italian harp to the continuo or by doubling the strings with winds in the French tradition. Dido and Aeneas includes one of the most touching operatic laments "When I am laid in earth".

A cast of first-class singers with strong musical personalities offer an eclectic interpretation together with a chorus that creates a visceral and intrinsically dramatic soundworld. Dido and Aeneas is David Bates and La Nuova Musica's fourth release, after the acclaimed Gluck Orfeo and Euridice (2019) and Handel's Unsung Heroes (2021), as well as Beauteous Softness (2023) where they joined forces with Tim Mead. Counter-tenor Tim Mead previously released Pentatone's Handel Messiah (2020) with Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin. Star tenor Nicky Spence, Fleur Barron, Matthew Brook, Giulia Semenzato all make their Pentatone debut.