Dido & Aeneas a Triumph
Ealing Choral Society was delighted to perform the first concert of its 2023-24 season to a sold-out house at St Barnabas last weekend. The Henry Purcell-centred programme was bookended by Welcome to All the Pleasures, his ode for St Cecilia’s day, and his tragic masterpiece of early opera, Dido and Aeneas. The choir and orchestra also performed works by composers who inspired Purcell (Adrian Batten and Thomas Tomkins), or were inspired by him (Johann Pachelbel and Hubert Parry). The programme showcased the choir’s operatic abilities, but also the homogeneity of sound and the contrasting moods conveyed in the four unaccompanied items.
Supporting the choir were soloists: soprano Rachel Allen (standing in with only a day’s notice), mezzo-soprano Bethany Horak-Hallett, contralto Mae Heydorn, tenor Peter Davoren and baritone Jerome Knox. The sublime voices of the soloists fizzed in the celebratory ode to St Cecilia and brought depth and drama to Dido. Allen brought emotion and movement to Belinda, while Heydorn and Davoren delighted in their many small appearances. While one couldn’t help falling in love with Jerome Knox’s honey-voiced Trojan hero Aeneas, the opera really belonged to Bethany Horak-Hallett’s tragic Queen Dido, whose luxurious rendition of the heartbreaking aria “Dido’s Lament” sent a chill through the rapt, sellout audience.
Conductor Peter Asprey steered period specialists Meridian Sinfonia through a score stuffed with Purcellian gems; and with plenty for the chorus to sink their teeth into as well, the evening was undoubtedly a success.
Ealing Choral Society will return to St Barnabas for three more concerts in the 2023-24 season. Please visit our Concerts page for more information.
I have been going to ECS concerts for about 30 years; I thought that last night’s concert was one of the best concerts, possibly the best, which I have been to. It was brilliant.
I was there at the concert yesterday evening and thought it was fabulous! Not just the vocal, orchestral and choral aspect - that was first class - but the choreography of what was virtually a semi-staged performance of Dido and Aeneas. You must all be very pleased. The replacement Belinda, Rachel Allen, was excellent, and well done to her for stepping in at a day’s notice.
What an evening! My guests loved it - the programme and the performance. Several said it was our best ever. One friend (who sings with another choir) said she thinks we’re the best choir in West London!
The concert was fantastic and the choir was on great form, please pass on my huge regards to all involved!
I didn’t know you were that good! I’ll definitely be back.
You sounded better than some performances we've heard in the West End - bravo!
You get just get better and better - Peter was the wizard amongst the witches last night.
I didn’t think I liked early music—but I do now!