La Opera on Air broadcasts continue on Classical 90.5 at noon this Saturday, July 25, with a double bill performance of Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell and Bluebeard's Castle by Béla Bartók. The performance will run approximately two hours and thirty-five minutes. Steven Sloane conducts.
A riveting pairing of one-act masterpieces, written more than two centuries apart, explores the fine line between devotion and obsession. In Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, a queen falls prey to the machinations of a formidable enemy, losing her heart to a man who abruptly abandons her. In Bartók’s suspenseful orchestral showpiece Bluebeard's Castle, an impulsive young bride turns her back on her family, only to uncover increasingly dark truths about her new husband.
A powerfully theatrical production by Barrie Kosky (director of LA Opera’s recent The Magic Flute) shines new light on the agonizing consequences of unconditional love.
THE CAST
Dido: Paula Murrihy
Aeneas: Liam Bonner
Belinda (in "Dido and Aeneas"): Kateryna Kasper
Sorceress (in "Dido and Aeneas"): John Holiday
second Lady (in "Dido and Aeneas"): Summer Hassan
First Witch (in "Dido and Aeneas"): G. Thomas Allen
Second Witch (in "Dido and Aeneas"): Darryl Taylor
Sailor/Spirit (in "Dido and Aeneas"): Brenton Ryan
Bluebeard: Robert Hayward
Judith (in "Bluebeard's Castle"): Claudia Mahnke
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