Venus, Sorceress Kelebogile Boikanyo Besong

Dido Natalia Kawalek-Plewniak

Adonis; Aeneas Edward Grint

Belinda Sophie Junker

Cupid; Spirit, Mercury Jake Arditti

Shepherdess; Handmaid Einat Aronstein

Shepherd; Sailor Jeffrey Francis

1st Witch Aurélie Franck

2nd Witch Danielle Rohr

The Pavillion Ensemble

Press items for this production:

• Triumph für "Barockoper: Jung" in Innsbruck

   

  Festival : Triumph for Baroque Opera

   

  The premiere performance of the operas "Venus and Adonis " and " Dido and Aeneas " at the Innsbruck Festival of Early Music became a triumphal procession, Wednesday, for all involved.

  The visitors responded enthusiastically with long applause.

   

  The special ingredients for this more than successful artistic dish served to the audience at the premiere, the Austrian Press Agency found (APA ) obvious:

  Firstly, the famous and foremost British composers of the 17th Century John Blow ( "Venus and Adonis " ) and Henry Purcell ( "Dido and Aeneas ").

   

  Secondly, the convincing casting and choice of the young singers, who were among the winners at the Innsbruck International Singing Competition for Baroque Opera “Pietro Antonio Cesti” 2012.

   

  And thirdly, the director Laurence Dale himself, who, as an Englishman captured in this tragi-comedy, the quintessence of that particularly British humor that the staging needed.

   

   

  Fun ends, in both cases, in tragedy

   

  Dale sees these two forebears of British operas as satirical and humourous . Unbridled fun along with that archetypal , slightly rude, cheeky English humor and the eternal trials and tribulations of love , which of course ends, in both cases, in tragedy.

  The first piece of the evening, "Venus and Adonis " , ends with Venus and Dido violently mourning the death of Adonis . The second opera , "Dido and Aeneas " concludes with the departure of Aeneas and a devastated Dido, who then sings her own death .

   

   

  A full story in one arch.

  "When you see the piece as a frivolous comedy, the emotional charge of the last scene is even more intense ," the director said before the premiere . That's what he succeeded in making happen; as if the storylines between the two pieces merge into one. The Death of Adonis and his resurrection as Aeneas - the rampant tragicomedy rescued , as it were tightly bound over to the next .

   

  Two hours of music in perfection

  To highlight one of the singers would particularly unfair, even pointless. They all stood out, some even in multiple roles. The comparison on an international level is more than successful. The stage in the ancient courtyard of the Faculty of Theology benefitted from its spartan nature. The lighting and light games created deliberate, perfect dramatic effects. The costumes and masks were in their colorfulness and sometimes shrillness, evocative of a courtly masque of the 17th Century. And the musicians of " The Pavillion ensemble" made ​​for the perfect wave on which the stage actors " then surfed " . Music in its perfection as two hours passed .

  Wiener Zeitung
  15 August 2013

• Triumph für Barockoper 

  Tirol ORF
  15 August 2013

• Wenn Göttin Venus Launen zeigt

  Tiroler Tageszeitung
  Ursula Strohal, 16 August 2013

• "Barockoper jung" begeistert

  Kronen Zeitung
  Franz Gratl, 15 August 2013