Dido and Aeneas

Pina Bausch, very thin, in a nightgown, with her arms outstretched and her eyes closed, sleepwalking, moving between chairs and dancers. Perhaps that moment at Café Müller is the best-known image of the great German choreographer to the general public. It is also the scene that moves the protagonist of the film Talk to Her, by Pedro Almodóvar, to tears. The sad and beautiful music that plays in those scenes is a fragment of Dido and Aeneas, the opera by Henry Purcell.

Pina Bausch and Sasha Waltz, two of the most relevant figures in contemporary dance, created choreographies with this opera. Now Dido and Aeneas comes to GAM with the same combination of elements: baroque music and contemporary staging.

The Music Institute of the Alberto Hurtado University presents only three performances, with the musical direction of Paula Torres, with Elena Pérez as Dido, Pablo Oyanedel as Eneas, five other singers and the Institute's Chamber Choir. The stage direction is by José Luis Vidal, a choreographer who returns to GAM after presenting in January Rite of spring, and who now directs a cast made up of 5 dancers and 17 singers.

Premiered in 1689, Dido and Aeneas was Purcell's first opera and tells the tragic love of Dido, queen of Carthage, and Aeneas, a Trojan hero who will be forced to leave by the gods. A story of romance, abandonment and death. 

Musical directionPaula Torres
Stage and regié directionJosé Luis Vidal
Assistant stage directionCatalina Avaria and Luis Enrique Díaz-Laskao
Lighting set design Delightlab (Andrea Gana and Germán Gana + collaboration with Marco Martínez)
Design of costumes SISA (Alejandra Cruz, Elisa Rodríguez, Trinidad Rodríguez)
Executive production Pilar Santelices

Singers
Dido Elena Pérez
Eneas Pablo Oyanedel
Sorceress Claudia Lepe
Belinda Virginia Barrios
Spirit/sailor Igor Hernández
First witch Paulina Navarro
Second witch and second lady Jeanette Pérez

Dancers
César Cisternas, Cristian Hewitt, Natalia Bakulic, Josselyn Morrison and Benjamín Marchant

UAH Music Institute Chamber Choir
Virginia Barrios, Daniela Matamala, Carolina Matus, Paulina Navarro, Jeannette Pérez, Elena Pérez, Verónica Ramírez, Filomena Segovia, Francisco Espinoza, Igor Hernández, Cesar Sepúlveda, Leonardo Aguilar, Juan Contreras and Aníbal Fernández

Musical ensemble
Violin I Dustin Cassonet, Diana Brown and Héctor Marchant
Violin II Álvaro Carreño and Álvaro Arredondo
Viola Javier Farfán
Cello Sebastián Mercado
Viola de gamba Florencia Bardavid
Double bass José Espinoza
Harpsichord Camilo Brandi
Tiorba Cristian Gutiérrez
Piano Yudalys Perdomo