Dido & Aeneas at Sydney Opera House

A passionate love story. A hero bound by fate. A lover left behind.

Dido & Aeneas is a love story for the ages. Bringing together exhilarating acrobatics and extraordinary music, this production is an opera for today.

Aeneas is a hero caught between his destiny and desire. Dido is the woman he must leave behind. For these star-crossed lovers, fate and romance are on a collision course, and when the smoke clears, Dido’s heart is found among the wreckage.

Purcell’s early opera gave the world one of the most poignant scores ever written and laid the foundation for every opera that came after.

Now, experience the power of Dido & Aeneas in a new staging from Circa artistic director Yaron Lifschitz, which sets “a new benchmark for opera production in Australia” (Limelight). Expect jaw-dropping physical feats from Circa’s talented ensemble alongside stunning voices in this follow-up to last year’s sell-out success Orpheus & Eurydice. Libby McDonnell’s glamorous costumes are chic creations of luxe materials and strong silhouettes, and Lifschitz has created a stark, slick set.

It’s always a delight to welcome a rising star home, and we have two in this production: tenor Nicholas Jones is currently a principal artist with Opéra national de Paris and mezzo soprano Anna Dowsley returns to sing Dido after great success overseas. Hear her perform as the doomed Queen of Carthage and sing her famous lament ‘When I am Laid in Earth’.