Dido and Aeneas at Victoria University’s Memorial Theatre

16 July 2015

Dido and Aeneas at Victoria University’s Memorial Theatre

Virgil's tale is thousands of years old but really nothing’s changed; it’s a hard row finding the perfect partner.

Aeneas is perfect for Dido in just about every way, except he has some work commitments in the underworld.

Is Aeneas prepared to give up career ambition for the sake of love? And if he does, will Dido have him back?

Wellingtonians can see this absorbing tragedy when Te Kōkī New Zealand School of Music stages Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas at Victoria University’s Memorial Theatre.

In its biannual opera production, the school is coupling Dido and Aeneas, with French composer Maurice Ravel’s delightful L’Enfant et les Sortilèges.

Soprano Alicia Cadwgan is the heartbroken female lead in Dido and Aeneas, unable to accept her lover’s decision to go off to war. Singing beside her is Rotorua-born tenor Declan Cudd as the Trojan hero Aeneas.

Cudd, 21, rose through the ranks to lead roles in musicals at high school and sings professionally with the NZ Opera Chorus but says Aeneas is his most heroic character so far.

“People think Aeneas is an anti-hero, but he has a great sense of duty that willed him to leave Dido,” Cudd says.

Cudd’s teachers Richard Greager and Lisa Harper-Brown know what it takes because they’re professionally active in the opera world.

“They’re helping to extend my range lower and want me to make more noise down there.”

Fulbright scholar Frances Moore is directing. She spent six months at New York University with exclusive access to tech rehearsals at the famous Metropolitan Opera.

“She provides us all with the environment to develop our own ideas and really teaches us along the way,” Cudd says.

Dido & Aeneas by Purcell and L’Enfant et les Sortilèges by Ravel Directed by Frances Moore, conducted by Donald Maurice & Kenneth Young
Victoria University Memorial Theatre, 19 Kelburn Parade, Wellington
Thurs 13th – Sat 15th August 7.30pm, Sun 16th August 2pm
Tickets $60 Adult, $20 Student
Ticketek 0800 842 538 www.ticketek.co.nz

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