Dido and Aeneas

Henry Purcell Dido and Aeneas opera to libretto by Nahum Tate. Directed 2008 by Deborah Warner at the Opéra Comique. Singing stars are Malena Ernman, Christopher Maltman, Judith Van Wanroij, Hilary Summers, Lina Markeby, Céline Ricci, Ana Quintans, Damian Whiteley, and Marc Mauilon. Fiona Shaw has a spoken part. Acrobats are Sébastien Bruas, Romulo Pelizza, Loïc Reiter, Willy Grasman, Nicolas Comicci, and Tomas Van Uden. William Christie conducts Les Arts Florissants Choir and Orchestra; sets and costumes by Chloé Obolensky; lighting by Jean Kalman; directed for TV by François Roussillon. Released  2010, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: A

FRA stands for François Roussillon & Associés, an upstart group that has set out to create the most beautiful HDVD products on the market. You know this right away when you open the custom-made presentation package with a clever slip cover, 32-page collectors booklet, and artfully crafted case for the single disc. So how do you doll up Dido and Aeneas to meet the expectations created by the cover? Well, by casting beautiful young singers who can also act, adding acrobats instead of dancers, garnishing with bright sets and costumes, supporting with a hand-picked chorus that eats nothing but ambrosia, charming all with the glowing smiles of avuncular William Christie, throwing in odd touches like stampeding school girls, a naked sailor, and cocaine-snorting witches, and starting off the whole thing with something nobody would expect: 6 minutes of straight spoken legitimate theater! In the wrong hands, this would be  egregious Eurotrash---but as executed by Warner and Christie, it manages somehow to seem a logical and fitting way to deal with Purcell's obscure music and Dido's sad story. If you have laughs and tears, prepare to mix them now.