»Dido & Aeneas« at Staatsoper Unter den Linden

Since its premiere in 2005 at the Grand Théâtre de la Ville de Luxembourg, the production has toured the world, from Montpellier to Amsterdam and Brussels, Tel Aviv and Sydney. We are delighted that it is now returning to the Berlin stage, together with the Vocalconsort Berlin and the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin.

Henry Purcell's »Dido & Aeneas« is often described as the oldest love story in English opera. The production was a premiere for Sasha Waltz and marked the beginning of her work on »choreographic opera.« Together with 12 dancers from her ensemble and 51 musicians, choristers and soloists, she developed her interpretation of »Dido & Aeneas.« The complex emotional world of Henry Purcell's only fully composed opera formed the starting point for the choreographic work. Sasha Waltz focussed on the two main characters of the plot, the Carthaginian queen Dido and Aeneas, who has fled Troy, whose love is tragically prevented by the looming enmity between their two empires.

Sasha Waltz was the first modern interpreter of this opera to develop a choreographic work from this tragic love story, involving the singers in its dance processes and thus merging dance and opera into a single art form. Singers and choristers become part of an overall choreography that frees them from their original roles and functions. With the help of the impressive ensemble, Sasha Waltz's choreography goes far beyond a mere illustration of the opera's story.